When talking about sports medicine, people usually relate it to emergency situations that may arise anytime during athletic events. Expedient action must be taken in order to provide the best possible care to the sport participant in emergency and/or life threatening conditions. The development and implementation of an emergency plan will help ensure that the best care will be provided. As emergencies may occur at anytime during an activity, the Sports Medicine Department and Athletic Staff must be prepared. Athletic Organizations have a duty to develop an emergency plan that may be implemented immediately when necessary and to provide appropriate standards of emergency care to all sports participants. The following are the general guidelines in developing emergency action plans.
First, establish roles in the sports medicine team. Each member of the team must be able to adapt to specific team/ sport/ venue. It may be best to have more than one person assigned to each role in cases of absences or even turnovers. The immediate care of the athlete is typically done by the physician or the certified athletic trainer, also known as ATC. Any first aid responder can attend to the injured sport participant but he/ she must have undergone first aid courses and was trained in basic life support. The activation of the Emergency Medical System could be done by the school administrator or anyone in authority of that specific institution. The emergency equipment could be retrieved by a student assistant, the coach or anyone in the vicinity. The direction of Emergency Medical System to scene could be handled by the administrator of the institution, a coach, a student assistant or anyone in the same vicinity.
Secondly, like any other strategies in developing plans, communication is key. Contacting the sports medicine personnel can be done primarily through any fixed means of communication such as using the telephone, mobile/ cellular phone, or even the radio. It is important to list all key personnel and all phones associated with this each person in the sports medicine personnel. The back-up method is often the landline contact number of the person. Prior to the sport events, it is also important to test the communication capability of the contact media. Cell phone and radio reception can vary, and batteries should be charged, as well as check to see if the landline is working. Make sure communication methods are accessible. You can do this by identifying and posting location. Check to see if there are locks or other barriers.
For the activation of Emergency Medical System, make sure to identify contact numbers such as 911, the ambulance, police, fire house department, hospital, poison control, and suicide hotline. You should prepare a script or an opening spill that includes the caller name/ location/ phone number, nature of emergency, number of victims and their condition, what treatment initiated, specific directions to scene. Post both of the above near communication devices, other visible locations in venue, and circulate to appropriate personnel. For student emergency information, the first aid responder should provide critical medical information which includes the injured sport participant’s conditions, medications and allergies.
Reference:
http://www.liberty.edu/flames/?PID=10959
http://khsaa.org/reports/appendixhNCHSAAcompiled.pdf