Tracking the Chaos: Visualizing People & Resource Flow in Disaster Drills via Mobile App

Abstract

Mass casualty incident (MCI) drills at disaster base hospitals are critical opportunities for continuously improving institutional disaster response capabilities. However, conventional drill evaluations rely heavily on observer-based checklists and post-drill debriefings, making it difficult to objectively and quantitatively capture what actually occurred during the exercise. In drills where numerous simulated casualties, medical staff, and equipment move simultaneously, accurately reconstructing "who was where and when," "which areas became congested," and "how resources such as stretchers were utilized" remains a significant challenge.To address this, we developed a smartphone application designed to record and visualize the flow of people and materials during disaster drills. The app incorporates three tracking methods: NFC tags, BLE beacons, and barcodes. NFC tags attached to casualty cards or equipment are scanned at area entry and exit points to log timestamps. BLE beacons enable continuous location tracking of tagged subjects. Barcodes printed on existing cards or labels allow lightweight data capture with minimal setup. Each method offers distinct trade-offs in deployment ease, recording accuracy, operational burden, and attachment feasibility, enabling selection based on drill objectives and site conditions.Application examples from MCI drills conducted at disaster base hospitals are presented. The recorded data allow time-series reconstruction of each simulated casualty's movement across triage areas—red, yellow, green, waiting zones, and imaging rooms—enabling quantification of congestion onset and duration. Equipment utilization, including stretcher deployment timelines and potential shortages or bottlenecks, is similarly visualized.This approach extends drill evaluation beyond subjective narrative reflection toward objective, data-driven assessment. Metrics such as area dwell time, inter-area transfer duration, congestion levels, and equipment utilization rates enable multidimensional performance measurement. Longitudinal data accumulation further supports year-over-year comparison, facilitating verification of improvement and identification of recurring operational challenges.

Keywords: Disaster Drill Evaluation, Mass Casualty Incident, Smartphone-based Tracking, Hospital Disaster Resilience, Data-driven Assessment

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1007563