Page 178 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Summer 2015

The Committee for Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (C-TECC):

Summer Update

David W. Callaway, MD; Reed Smith, MD;
Geoff Shapiro, EMT-P; Brendan Hartford, EMT-P; Sean McKay, EMT-P; Rich Kamin, MD

TRAINING AND GRANTS UPDATE
A recent internal survey revealed that in the past 2.5 response, due to operational challenges and barriers.
years, members of the Board of Directors and Board of In addition, the TECC-based CTG will teach respond-
Advisors have assisted in providing Tactical Emergency ers to work in environments in which they have not
Casualty Care (TECC) training to at least 68,213 first- traditionally worked in the past. First receivers will be
care providers, nonmedical first responders (i.e., law trained to take delivery of patients who may have been
enforcement), Fire, emergency medical services (EMS), treated under new response paradigms and patient-care
emergency management, and hospital-based providers. guidelines.
This is likely a vast understatement of training numbers,
as it reflects a small sample of self-reported numbers and GWU will base its training on the tenets of TECC,
does not include private-industry training numbers or which is a set of evidence-based, best-practice medical
local “grass-roots” TECC programs. treatment guidelines. TECC, which was formally estab-
lished in 2011, has quickly become the accepted civilian
Building on this success, the US Department of Home- standard for care during atypical events. In 2013, the
land Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency C-TECC outlined the Active Violent Incident Trauma
(FEMA) awarded the George Washington University Chain of Survival that identified the critical role played
(GWU) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) by nonmedical providers in improving survival after
a $1,308,422 continuing training grant (CTG) based mass violent incidents (e.g., any atypical high-threat/
on the core principles of TECC. The FEMA National high-impact event including active shooter/active vio-
Training and Education Division administers the CTG lence and mass casualty emergencies). Specifically, the
program. As described by FEMA, “the program devel- Chain of Survival identifies the key roles of:
ops and delivers innovative training programs that are
national in scope and have an important role in the • First-care providers: citizens and bystanders
implementation of the National Preparedness System • First responders
by supporting the building, sustainment, and delivery of • Medical first responders
core capabilities essential to achieving the National Pre- • First receivers: emergency departments at all levels of
paredness Goal of a secure and resilient Nation. Deliver- trauma certification (including nontrauma centers)
ing core capabilities requires the combined effort of the
whole community, rather than the exclusive effort of any An integral component of the training also involves a re-
single organization or level of government.” sponse model called “Rescue Task Force” (RTF), which
enables law enforcement, fire, and EMS personnel to
The CTGs support further development of the National rapidly deploy in a coordinated effort into areas that
Preparedness System. GWU will use the grant to de- have been cleared, but not secured, to initiate treatment
velop training programs and other resources that specif- at or near the point of wounding, and effect rescue of
ically focus on the “medical readiness/immediate victim survivors. RTF was first made operational by the Ar-
care at mass casualty events.” The overarching goal of lington County Fire Department in Virginia, and is now
GWU’s training is to better prepare citizens (first-care in use by many public safety agencies across the world.
providers) and first responders to provide care dur- Members of C-TECC have worked closely with vari-
ing events where there may be a delay in traditional ous agencies to assist in the development and training

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