font> « back to results for ""
Below is a cache of http://www.senate.gov/comm/labor/general/Hearings/2004_07_22/Martinez.pdf. It's a snapshot of the page taken as our search engine crawled the Web.
The web site itself may have changed. You can check the current page or check for previous versions at the Internet Archive. Yahoo! is not affiliated with the authors of this page or responsible for its content.
Microsoft Word - Document2 Terror Attacks: Are We Prepared?
Bill Number:
Hearing Date: July 22, 2004, 10:00 am
Location: SD-430
Witness:
Ricardo Martinez, MD, FACEP
Super Bowl, National Football League/Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta,
Georgia
Senior Medical Advisor/Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Testimony
Mr. Chairman, and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to
speak to you today on this very important issue. I am Dr. Ricardo Martinez, a board-
certified emergency physician and a senior medical consultant to the National Football
League on emergency and disaster planning and response. I have attached to my
statement a brief CV that more fully describes my background and prior public service. I
am joined today by Mr. Milt Ahlerich, Vice-President of Security for the National
Football League.
The National Football League places a premium on fan safety and security. During the
professional football season, the National Football League maintains a national
communications center to coordinate and integrate the various events that take place
around the county on game days. On any given weekend, as many as 16 large-scale
events may take place, involving an average of 65,000 fans and personnel. In many ways,
each event alone represents the population of a small city and the expected challenges
and incidents that accompany such a population.
In the aftermath of September 11th, the Commissioners office, under the direction of Mr.
Ahlerich and his staff, began to identify the best security practices in stadiums from
around the country and created an advisory board of professionals with expertise in
facilities and game operations, security, and emergency planning. As a result, the NFL
created a Best Practices program that was recommended to all NFL Teams through a
series of conferences around the country. The NFL followed up with on-site reviews of
each facility by an independent security firm that observed and reported the level of
compliance with the NFLs Best Practices and made recommendations to improve. In the
summer of 2002, the NFL held a training seminar for team security officials on the best
practices and offered advice on steps clubs could take to enhance security without unduly
inconveniencing fans.
In 2003, the NFL conducted a training program for up to five people from each team, and
provided them with in-depth presentations on pre-game and game day security, venue
inspections, vehicle inspection, access and credentialing, proper screening procedures and
techniques, basic emergency procedures and much more. In addition, train-the-trainer
courses were provided so that local facility staff could be trained on the basics of this
important information. The NFL firmly believes that complacency can erode well thought-out plans and procedures and therefore it is essential to continue to review,
upgrade and assist the NFL member clubs in maintain their high levels of compliance
with the Best Practices.
The NFL subscribes to the firm belief that security, medical and venue operations must
work in an integrated fashion to maximize the effectiveness of event operations and to
strengthen and coordinate the response to an emergency. More important perhaps is the
recognition that front line staff, be it ushers, parking attendants or concessioners, are the
first contact point in the chain of survival for medical emergencies and for managing
security and operations incidents.
Therefore, this year the Commissioners office updated and expanded the Best Practices
program to include information on emergency medical and disaster planning and
response. Subject matter included in-depth discussion of the planning, prevention,
response and recovery phases of emergencies and disasters; an overview of the Incident
Command System used for disaster response; special situations such as biological,
hazardous material and other public health threats; and issues such as full and partial
evacuation principles.
Again this year, the NFL sponsored a training program for senior staff from each NFL
team and their associated facilities, which program was conducted at three locations
across the United States. In addition to the presentations, the NFL created a separate
training program module for teams and facilities that can be modified and used for the
training of their front line staff in the local facility. This program teaches staff how to
recognize an emergency, what to do in an emergency; how to contact help and what
information to report; what to do until help arrives; how to protect themselves and others,
how to recognize and respond to special situation such as hazardous materials; their role
in a Multiple Casualty Incident, and how to evacuate calmly and safely. This current
version of the Best Practices program is being used to train staff around the country as we
speak here today.
Like any search for best practices, the information continues to evolve as people gain
experience in this new environment. What is important is that we all continue to look for
ways in which we can all improve our readiness and response to both the expected
emergencies of everyday life and to the new threats that are emerging. That is why
Congressional hearings like that of today are so important. We listen, and we learn.
Perhaps no single event provides the National Football League an opportunity to put
these principles into practice than the Super Bowl. Each year, the NFL brings together a
large cadre of experts from both inside and outside the NFL and oversees and manages
the Super Bowl and its associated events. It is hard and demanding work. Having been
the senior medical advisor since 1988, I can attest to the enormous changes in complexity
and magnitude over time. After September 11, this complexity increased even more
dramatically, both in intensity and in scope. The unthinkable is no longer unthinkable.
As you know, by its nature, the Super Bowl has a huge impact on the local community
where the game is played. This can be very challenging, but it also offers the opportunity
to increase the emergency preparedness and capacity of the community. Because of the
terrific support of the local community and surrounding areas for this event, Super Bowl
planning can provide a forum for improved communications, strengthened relationships,
and can help overcome organizational and political barriers, and foster innovative and
creative partnerships. Cooperation among all agencies, resources and organizations that could potentially prevent or respond to a major incident is vital. Preparations and
planning include incidents resulting from causes as diverse as crowd overload, to major
trauma, a hazardous exposure, or a major incident.
The NFL works in partnership with agencies at all levels of government, as well as
private organizations, to share its expertise and to create an environment that fosters
teamwork and integration. Starting up to a year in advance, the NFL ensures that venue
management, security, emergency medical services, local hospitals, police, fire, local
emergency management, public health, civic organizations such as the Red Cross,
business leaders and the local political community come together early in the discussions
of emergency and disaster planning and response. Such an effort provides a better
understanding of the complexity, and the reality of responding to and managing the
consequences of possible incidents, and focuses attention on the practical aspects of how
a community would actually respond to a given incident. Since 9/11, we do not ask what
if; rather, we ask when if and then work with others to hammer out a solution.
Our physicians spend a great deal of time working with their counterparts in the state and
local medical communities, as well as government officials, to facilitate the coordination
and teamwork required for the Super Bowl. In addition, such emergency and disaster
planning requires intimate cooperation between these groups and federal agencies such as
the Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
the EPA, and the Department of Energy. Of particular note is that these groups are also
brought together with architectural and transportation planners to plan and prepare
ingress and egress paths, emergency access routes, staging areas, triage and treatment