Tactical Evacuation Care Part 2, the handoff

Following our discussion on evacuation vehicles, we have the next crucial step to casualty care, the handoff. We don’t just drop the casualty off at the door and bid them “good day sir!”. There are some steps to presenting a casualty, plus we probably won’t have the luxury of handing them off to a dedicated treatment team and waiting for them to recover. We may have to conduct the handoff and then either immediately join the treatment team, or conduct an AAR of the event to then go back and join the treatment team.

The handoff is a quick brief and review of the casualty’s injuries, treatments, most recent vital signs (including any noticeable trends), and overall status. For example, if we had a group member who had gunshot wounds to the left leg with tourniquets applied, NPA placed current HR 95, BP 90/P, RR 22, SPO2 98%, and alert we would present them as follows: “We’ve got a __ Year-Old Male with GSW’s to the left leg. We applied a TQ and it is controlling bleeding, he’s got an NPA, HR 95, weren’t able to get a bp but he’s 90/P, RR 22, SPO2 98%, and he’s Alert. Any questions?”

Communication needs to be precise and effective. We don’t have time to dilly dally with information or take our time catching up with people on the treatment team. Convey the important information and leave out any fluff. If you have incomplete information due to unforeseen circumstances say so without trying to replay the whole mission to the treatment team. Make sure you hand off the Casualty Care Card as you are presenting. You may forget something but if you wrote it down the treatment team will catch it.

The handoff can be very daunting, but don’t get too worked up about it. Practice will make this task WAY easier. And I am working on putting together another class that will include handoffs and a few other things that have been asked about as well. Should have it ready for this fall.