MACSIM ®

The key-stone of major incident response is decision making, on all levels: From the level of command (which resources to alert and how to use them in the most efficient way) to the level of individual patient management (what to do with this patient in this specific situation, how to do it and with which priority). We act as computers and based on all available information (= input data) we make our decision. The decision has consequences with regard to consumption of time and resources, and also for the outcome for the patient with regard to life and health (= output data).

Evaluation of the decisions requires:

• Complete and accurate input-data (available resources of all kinds, geographic and climatic conditions, findings on examination of patients)

• Complete and accurate output-data (mortality and complications related to injury severity, consumption and utilization of time and resources).

Design of a simulation model really fulfilling these criteria requires considerable effort, expertise and experience and very few such models are available within this field today.