LAUSR

BACKGROUND In 2021, 702 people died in mass shooting incidents (MSI) in the US. To define best healthcare response to MSIs, the Uniformed Services University's National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health hosted a consensus conference of emergency medical services (EMS) clinicians, emergency medicine physicians (EM), and surgeons who provided medical response to six of the nation's largest recent mass shootings. METHODS The study consisted of a three-round modified Delphi process. A planning committee selected six MSI sites with the following criteria: the MSI occurred in 2016 or later, and must have resulted in at least 15 people killed and injured. The MSI sites were: Orlando, Florida, Las Vegas, Nevada, Sutherland Springs, Texas, Parkland, Florida, El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. Fifteen clinicians participated in the conference. All participants had EMS, EM, or surgery expertise and responded to one of the six MSIs. The first round consisted of a two-part survey. The second and third-rounds consisted of site-specific presentations followed by specialty-specific discussion groups to generate consensus recommendations. RESULTS The three specialty-specific groups created eight consensus recommendations in common. These eight recommendations addressed readiness training, public education, triage, communication, patient tracking, medical records, family reunification, and mental health services for responders. There were an additional 11 recommendations created in common between two sub-groups, either EMS and EM (two), EM and surgery (seven), or EMS and surgery (two). CONCLUSION There are multiple common recommendations identified by EMS, EM, and surgery clinicians who responded to recent MSIs. Clinicians, emergency planners, and others involved in preparing and executing a response to a future mass shooting event may benefit from considering these consensus lessons learned.