Konzepte für Rettungsketten in Waldarbeitssystemen (English shop)

The structural and process-oriented planning of the forest rescue chain is intended to ensure the shortest possible therapy-free interval (the time between the accident and the arrival of the emergency services). However, rescue exercises carried out and documented in the past did not permit statistically reliable statements regarding the magnitude of the therapy-free interval, owing to the small sample size and the differing general conditions, which from the outset thwarted any comparison of different rescue concepts. Ultimately, all rescue chain concepts in forestry lack time-based reference values as a basic prerequisite for quality management. In addition, the conventional rescue solutions exhibit weaknesses with regard to work groups reduced to two persons and to the forestry contractors who are increasingly being deployed. Quite apart from the fact that the therapy-free interval times achievable by means of the established rescue concepts cannot be specified in concrete terms, the status quo of the quality of emergency medical care following forest accidents is jeopardised by structural changes in the emergency services and in forestry as well as by the changing working conditions in the forest.

On the basis of an analysis of the existing structures and processes, including the general conditions, and their subsequent evaluation, an optimised logistics system was designed and planned (structural and process design). The aim of the concept developed in the course of this work is to identify possible solutions that ensure a more rapid arrival of the emergency services at the accident site. Consideration is also given to the particular requirements arising from the lone working of forestry contractors or from the deployment of forest workers in two-person work groups. Process optimisation of the rescue chain is to be achieved by replacing the mobile phones currently used as alerting devices with GPS-based mobile phones with integrated passive alarm transmitters. The devices are connected to an emergency call centre which, through largely automated information processing and distribution, ensures the immediate initiation of the rescue chain and the precise localisation of the accident victims.

The emergency call centre provides logistical support to the locally responsible emergency dispatch centres in guiding the emergency services to the accident site. If the rescue vehicles are equipped with navigation systems whose navigation maps also depict the non-public forest road network in detail, the emergency personnel can find their way to the accident site in the forest even without a guide. The same is made possible by a set of directions generated automatically at the emergency call centre and transmitted to the responsible emergency services, provided that the vehicle crew additionally has a detailed analogue rescue map at its disposal. In addition to the public road network, these rescue maps also show the rescue points, the forest roads and the identification numbers and boundaries of the forest compartments.