After receiving a multitude of requests for information following the Pulse nightclub shooting last June, Orlando (Fla.) Health officials will publish a book to better educate medical personnel on how to handle mass casualty incidences, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
The nearly 200-page book — to be published early next year — will be written by hospital leaders and will designate one chapter for every department.
"We want this book to be something where someone could read the chapter from central supply and it's written by somebody who runs central supply here," said Michael Cheatham, MD, a critical care surgeon and the chief surgical quality officer at Orlando Health Orlando Regional Medical Center. "We've told the authors that if it was just you and one of your peers, what would you want to know if you were asking someone who had been through an event [like] this … This is what was important. This is what we had planned on. Here are the three key messages that we learned."
Since the shooting, Orlando Health personnel have given more than 160 presentations on the incident in 27 states and three countries, according to the report. During the talks, officials recount the events of that night, the importance of having compassion when speaking with victims' families and friends and how to prepare for "false flag folks" — individuals who discredit the event — among other lessons.
The health system conducted its own internal review of the incident and drafted a 51-page report outlining 66 areas of improvement, 17 of which are in the process of being implemented throughout the health system, the report states.
One key area of improvement officials noted was the necessity of increased security and the implementation of a mass notification system across all its campuses. The need for this type of system became more evident following the effects of Hurricane Matthew last September. Officials told the Orlando Sentinel the notification system is scheduled to go live by the end of this year.