Israel Hosts International Training for Mass Casualty Situations
Healthcare practitioners from around the world took part in a two-week Mass Casualty Situations (MCS) course, cosponsored by Israel’s Rambam Medical Center and MASHAV, Israel’s Agency for International Development and Cooperation. Medical personnel from around the world applied to participate in the course at Rambam’s Teaching Center for Trauma, Emergency, and Mass Casualty Situations. As the largest hospital in northern Israel and the only Level One trauma center in the region, Rambam has accumulated extensive experience in the field and has the lowest mortality rate for severe trauma patients in Israel. It can also convert its 1,500-car underground parking lot into a fortified emergency hospital within 72 hours, a feature that was implemented as a result of lessons learned from the 2006 Lebanon War, when rockets fell close to the hospital. Israel’s experience with war and terrorism has resulted in the country developing advanced systems and procedures for every scenario, as highlighted by the course. The participants selected for the program hailed from Armenia, Belarus, Botswana, Colombia, Ethiopia, Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Macedonia, Malawi, Nepal, Myanmar, Paraguay, the Philippines, Serbia, Thailand, and Ukraine. The teaching center was established in 1999 and has since provided training for over 3,000 people from more than 80 countries.