Summary: The Louisiana Health Department divides the state into 9 regions. Region 1 includes four parishes: New Orleans Parish, Plaquemines Parish, St Bernard Parish, and Jefferson Parish. Within Region 1, there are 11 ground ambulance agencies, made up of public and private agencies. One might think collaboration between 11 different public and private agencies would be difficult to accomplish; however, in this region, the agencies work exceptionally well together. There are a few key ways collaboration throughout the year increases interagency communication and coordination, and builds capacity during day-to-day operations and mass casualty events. The Metro Ambulance Council (MAC) serves Southeast Louisiana. It is comprised of all Region 1 EMS agencies, as well as the neighboring St. Charles Parish EMS agency. The MAC meets at least once a quarter; during these meetings, agencies report out and support each other’s needs that arise. Agencies work together to create regional plans and protocols. Having the regional protocols and plans results in a single language across the board that all agencies follow, increasing the ease of coordination. In October 2024, regional EMS agencies conducted two mass casualty exercises, including a full-scale exercise with 8 of the 11 agencies participating, involving over 70 volunteer patients. This exercise tested and proved positive interagency communication and incident command structure among the eight responding agencies. The second exercise was a tabletop between regional EMS agencies and 12 regional Hospitals, for EMS, this tabletop tested the Regional Mass Casualty transportation plan. It was found that through good communication and coordination within the regional EMS agencies, they were able to move all 400 simulated patients in a timely manner, as laid out in the regional plan. The high level of coordination between regional EMS agencies has led to a significant increase in pre-hospital EMS capacity.
Shayna Goldfine (Sun,) studied this question.