iMedPub Journals 2016 Vol. 2 No. 2: 18 Research Article http://www.imedpub.com Journal of Intensive and Critical Care ISSN 2471-8505 © Under License of Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License | This article is available in: http://criticalcare.imedpub.com/archive.php 1 DOI: 10.21767/2471-8505.100027 Pedro Arcos González 1 , Rafael Castro Delgado 1,2 , Roshan Mahabir 1 and Elena Ferrero Fernández 1 1 Department of Medicine, Unit for Research in Emergency and Disaster, University of Oviedo, Spain 2 SAMU-Asturias, Spain Corresponding authors: Prof. Rafael Castro Delgado  rafacastrosamu@yahoo.es Faculty of Medicine. Preventve Medicine and Public Health Area, Avda, Julián Clavería, 6 33006 Oviedo, Spain Citaton: Arcos González P, Castro Delgado R, Mahabir R, et al. The Feasibility of Applying the Disaster Severity Score: The Case of Spain. J Intensive & Crit Care 2016, 2:2. Introducton The concept of disaster metrics is used to quantfy the efects of disasters [1] partcularly in regards to the rescue efort. Within the scope of disaster metrics a “mass casualty incident” (MCI) or “multple casualty incident” is one that generated more patents that overwhelms the local capacity and requires additonal assistance [2], more briefy, an event in which the resultng number of victms is large enough to disrupt the normal emergency and health care services [3]. This situaton is generally a subset of disaster [4], which is usually a disrupton of a society in a situaton where they have litle or no control, the usual diference would be on the scale of the occurrence. Spain is one of the most afuent countries with ample resources to deal with emergency services. Given the size and varied geography Abstract Aim: Using the established scoring systems and databases, we aim to measure the disasters that occur within the Spanish natonal territory to evaluate both the scale and the database in real-world tests. Setngs: Spain is one of the most afuent countries with ample resources to deal with emergency services. Given the size and varied geography of the country, it is faced with multple situatons, from geological, meteorological, climatological, industrial, technological and human. The later three situatons are mostly due to the development of the country, which also saw an increase in the illegal immigraton to the southern shores during a period Methods: The Disaster Severity Scale was used to evaluate the disasters that occurred in Spain. The quantfers for the disasters were obtained from diferent websites and media sources and the incidence and changing scores of disasters that occurred over the last few years were determined and analyzed over the years available. Results and conclusions: The most obvious challenge is the lack of an updated dedicated database for disaster scoring which is compounded with accessing data from media websites. The Disaster Severity Score is responsive over tme to changes in mortality and morbidity and damage to infrastructure, meaning that it can be changed by government interventon. The scale is not valid for natural disasters due to the large area involved in these incidents but is very relevant in terms of number of injured and dead. Keywords: Spain; Disaster severity score; Disaster metrics; Mass casualty incidents The Feasibility of Applying the Disaster Severity Score: The Case of Spain Received: April 02, 2016; Accepted: April 13, 2016; Published: April 20, 2016 of the country, it is faced with multple situatons, from geological (earthquakes) meteorological (storms), climatological (hot and cold waves), industrial (accidents), technological (crashes) and human (terrorism). The later three situatons are mostly due to development and an increase in the illegal immigraton to the southern shores during a period. This study looks at the disasters occurred throughout Spain since the start of the disaster record database in 1950 and score them based on the Disaster Severity Score (DSS) [5]. We studied the practcal use of the DSS in terms of the Spanish system and its real world applicaton. This way we can quantfy the Spanish response to various incidents and also put the scale to a real-world test in terms of practcality and usefulness. Also we discuss the strengths and shortcomings of both the Spanish disaster databases and the quantfcaton methods.