EMT Terrorism Response and Disaster Management Practice Test

In a mass casualty incident, resources are severely limited and time is critical, so care standards are temporarily altered to maximize the number of people who survive. This means EMS may streamline and adapt treatment protocols and how we allocate resources—prioritizing actions that save the most lives with the available assets, deferring non-urgent care, and getting patients to definitive care as efficiently as possible. The goal is to maximize overall survival under the given constraints, not to provide higher-level care to everyone or to stop non-emergency care. Once the incident ends or resources improve, normal standards resume.