This is a lot to plan if you want to do it well. I've got a few thoughts/tips:
- Make the scenario at least plausible (if not realistic). Huge MCIs don't happen every day in your community, but you want it to be something somewhat believable in terms of numbers of patients and their injuries. For example, I would say that having a bunch of first responders who usually do event medical coverage do a scenario where they are the first on on a 777 crash would be fairly unproductive.
- Ensure you actually have limited resources if this is what you're going for. Sometimes when doing these large drills organisations end up having all of their responders show up but then only have a dozen patients for what ends up being at least two dozen responders. And then on top of that they send them all in at once. Well, no need for triage in that situation!
- Don't get too caught up in moulage. Yeah, it's cool if you've got someone who can do it, but it is also an easy way to waste time and to have injuries go way beyond what you may have wanted them to be.
- Teach people before. I don't know what level of people you're running this with, but even if they are experienced responders a review of MCI stuff would be valuable before. Going in and screwing stuff up in a full scale exercise that could have been learned earlier is a waste of a full scale exercise (or a drill, in this case).
- Ensure the rules of play are clear. For a good exercise, make sure the patients are "programmed" and that you have other controllers around to give information when needed. Make sure that it is clear before how responders will receive information about their patient conditions. This will allow them to stay "in character" as much as possible during the exercise.
- Record the exercise on video for debriefing. To really learn from the exercise, you'll need to review things carefully afterwards in an environment that facilities learning rather than trying to maintain egos. A video recording can be quite helpful in seeing how things actually went (sometimes we may remember what we wish we had done).
That's all I've got off the top of my head. Whether you're doing a small drill for half a dozen first responders or a full scale exercise for an entire EMS service, these points should help things to run more smoothly. Good luck!
