Anonymous
Source: Santa Barbara County Public Health Department
The annual unsanctioned event, known as “Deltopia”, involved significant, advanced joint planning and response amongst local law enforcement agencies, Santa Barbara County EMS Agency, Santa Barbara County Fire Department and American Medical Response. Consistent with other major planned events, a mass casualty incident (MCI) is planned for and routinely declared in advance of or during the event.
MCIs are usually declared when the number of patients exceeds the capacity of the EMS resources first on-scene to provide routine care. The declaration of an MCI allows for notification to all EMS providers in the County of the event, and triggered the use of pre-planned resources and systems to effectively communicate and coordinate between these entities.
“Deltopia” has been routinely declared an MCI prior to the event taking place since 2014, except for 2020 & 2021. Planning for these types of large events as MCIs allows for the EMS System and providers to appropriately safely care for and manage the expected large number of patients. This type of planning allows for a focused response to the declared incident while ensuring service delivery is uninterrupted to the surrounding communities.
On Saturday afternoon, the 911 system received multiple independent and isolated calls for medical assistance within Isla Vista. As a result of joint planning and triage operations, 13 patients were transported to local hospitals, which was a fraction of 911 requests that day.
The Santa Barbara County EMS Agency is responsible for Multi-Casualty Incident planning and implementation, and will continue to work with law, fire and EMS providers to ensure prehospital care and transport needs are equitable for the community and large events.
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