Hospital Emergency Response Training

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June 2023 Update 

The Hospital Emergency Response Training for Mass Casualty Incidents (HERT) course addresses healthcare response at the operations level for the facility and its personnel. This course prepares healthcare responders to utilize the Hospital Incident Command System — integrating into the community emergency response network while operating an Emergency Treatment Area as hospital first responders during a mass casualty incident involving patient contamination. The healthcare responders will determine and use appropriate personal protective equipment and conduct triage followed by decontamination of ambulatory and nonambulatory patients as members of a Hospital Emergency Response Team.

The Hospital Emergency Response Teams (HERT) are responsible for responding to Mass Casualty Incidents (MCI) involving Mass Trauma events, Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, or Explosive (CBRNE) incidents that require Decontamination of patients. HERT employs advance personal protective measures, nontraditional treatment measures, and utilization of the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS).  

Learning Objectives: 

Module 1: Course Introduction and Overvieiw. The Hospital Emergency Response Training for Mass Casualty Incidents - Basic (HERT-B) course gives students the ability to form a Hospital Emergency Response Team that will operationally respond to mass casualty incidents (MCI) because of natural, accidental, or intentional disasters.

Module 2: Emergency Treatment Area. This module provides the principles of establishing, staffing, and safely operating an Emergency Treatment Area (ETA) at the healthcare facility in support of medical operations as the result of an MCI that requires patient decontamination. 

Module 3: Team Accountability: Staffing the Lanes. This module provides the healthcare responder with the importance of team accountability and safety throughout the decontamination process and the procedures and tools necessary for achieving those requirements. 

Module 4: Hospital Decontamination Procedures. This module provides an overview of the decontamination corridor, decontamination methods, and procedures for decontamination of both ambulatory and non-ambulatory patients. 

Module 5: Triage and Lifesaving Interventions (1) This module provides an explanation of the need for triage and the application of SALT (Sort, Assess, Lifesaving Interventions, Treatment/Transport) Mass Casualty Triage Algorithm. (2) Optional START Version: This module provides an explanation of the need for triage and the application of START (Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment) and JumpSTART (pediatric model) principles. 

Module 6: Personal Protective Equipment. This module provides the importance of wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), levels of PPE, and hazards associated with wearing PPE, PPE selection criteria, and the latest recommendations as they relate to hospital first receivers based upon hazards associated with an MCI. 

Module 7: National Response and Hospital Incident Command System. This module provides application of the National Response Framework (NRF) and National Response Plan (NRP) to the healthcare community and applicability of the Incident Command System (ICS) to the Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) and the Hospital Incident Management Team (HIMT). 

Module 8: Health Effects of CBRNE. This module provides descriptions of various illnesses and injuries that can result from exposure to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) agents and materials; includes information necessary to HERT-B SG 2.0 2 suspect, identify, and treat a broad array of emergency medical conditions resulting from a CBRNE incident; and presents historical cases to illustrate examples of a CBRNE and an MCI. 

3. Course Graduation Criteria. To successfully complete the course, you must achieve a 70% or higher on the assessment.

Target Audience: The target audience for the Hospital Emergency Response Training—Home Training course includes hospital staff members who may comprise a HERT, including physicians, nurses, administrators, security personnel, environmental staff, and other hospital staff.   

Prerequisites - Have successfully completed awareness-level training for CBRNE response through AWR-160 or another certified awareness-level training program.   

Have successfully completed 

* ICS-100 (IS-100/100.a): Introduction to the Incident Command System; 

* ICS-200 (IS-200/200.a): ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents

* IS-700/700.a: National Incident Management System (NIMS), An Introduction.

* It is recommended to have successfully completed operations-level CBRNE (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive) or hazardous-materials training as specified in 29 CFR 1910.120(q)(6)(ii), at a minimum.