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What is Tactical Emergency Casualty Care?

Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC) is a set of evidenced-based and best practice trauma care guidelines for civilian high-threat pre-hospital environments.  The TECC guidelines are built upon the critical medical lessons learned by US and allied military forces over the past 15 years of conflict and codified in the doctrine of Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC). Using the military TCCC guidelines as a starting point, the Committee creates the civilian high threat medical guidelines through a process of literature research, evidence evaluation, expert discussion, and civilian best practices review. The TECC guidelines are built upon the foundations of TCCC but are different to meet the unique needs of the civilian medical and operational environments.

How is TECC similar to TCCC?

Tactical Emergency Casualty Care is a set of civilian medical guidelines for high threat operations. Tactical Combat Casualty Care is a set of military medical guidelines for care of the wounded during military combat operations. The two sets of guidelines are naturally related, but each with a necessary difference in language, scope, applicability and flexibility.

 

1. Both originate from experiences and research resulting from combat operations in Iraq & Afghanistan.

 

2. Both divide care into three phases: direct threat care, indirect threat care, and evacuation care.

 

3. Both address assessment and interventions in critical events outside of “civilized” mechanisms of injury

The course presents the three phases of tactical care and integrates parallel EMS nomenclature:

  • Hot Zone/Direct Threat Care that is rendered while under attack or in adverse conditions.

  • Warm Zone/Indirect Threat Care that is rendered while the threat has been suppressed but may resurface at any point.

  • Cold Zone/Evacuation Care that is rendered while the casualty is being evacuated from the incident site. 

The 16-hour classroom course includes all new patient simulations and covers the following topics:

  • Hemorrhage control including immediate action drills for tourniquet application throughout the course;

  • Complete coverage of the MARCH assessment;

  • Surgical airway control and needle decompression;

  • Strategies for treating wounded responders in threatening environments;

  • Caring for pediatric patients;

  • Techniques for dragging and carrying victims to safety; and

  • A final, mass-casualty/active shooter event simulation.

Whiteside Tactical Solutions & TECC 

WTS is a recognized education partner of the Co-TECC. The Co-TECC establishes guidelines for the provision of prehospital care to injured patients during a tactical incident. The Co-TECC neither creates curriculum for the prehospital provider, nor does it endorse the curriculum of other organizations.

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