Rapid Expansion and Adaptability of California Medical Disaster Teams.

The California Medical Assistance Team (CAL-MAT) program is coordinated by the California Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA). The program was developed to deploy and support medical personnel for disaster medical response. During the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the program and missions grew rapidly in response to medical surge, programs for testing and vaccination, and other concurrent disasters.

Sterilization of products contaminated with Pyronema domesticum.

Product recalls due to non-sterility occurred between 1993 and 1994 among manufacturers that were sterilizing cotton products sourced from China using ethylene oxide (EO). The primary contaminant was identified as a pyrophilous mold from the class Discomycetes, Pyronema domesticum. Multiple references suggest this organism has special needs for reproducing and maintaining the two assumed resistant stages of this organism (ascospores and sclerotia).

Hospital bed surge capacity in the event of a mass-casualty incident.

Introduction: Traditional strategies to determine hospital bed surge capacity have relied on cross-sectional hospital census data, which underestimate the true surge capacity in the event of a mass-casualty incident.

Objective: To determine hospital bed surge capacity for the County more accurately using physician and nurse manager assessments for the disposition of all in-patients at multiple facilities.

Methods: Overnight- and day-shift nurse managers from each in-patient unit at four different hospitals were approached to make assessments for each patient as to their predicted disposition at 2, 24, and 72 hours post-event in the case of a mass-casualty incident, including transfer to a hypothetical, onsite nursing facility.