Dynamic Allocation Strategies for Medical Teams in the First Hours after Mass Casualty Incidents

Assigning a limited number of relief teams to casualties immediately after a disaster is a challenging task in the casualty management process. This paper proposes several dynamic strategies for allocating teams to casualty groups right after a sudden-onset disaster to maximize the expected number of survivors. In the proposed strategies, serious triage groups and the deterioration of the physical condition of injured people are considered. The ratio of casualties in two critical triage groups, and the treatment rates and survival probabilities are the main parameters of the strategies. Thereafter, a case study is employed to demonstrate the validity of the proposed model. The strategies are compared based on the summation of the ratio of casualties in two triage groups. This comparison represents that the saving rate may be considered as an appropriate ratio for assigning medical teams to casualty groups. Sensitivity analysis evaluates the impact of key parameters on the model results. Accordingly, changes in the ratio of triaged people have less effect on the ratio of survivors than changes in the treatment rates. It indicates the importance of relief teams’ allocation for surviving the casualties.