National Disaster Medical System

The National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) is a section of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) responsible for managing Federal government's medical response to major emergencies and disasters.^[1]

NDMS’s federal partners include the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Defense (DOD), and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). NDMS also interfaces with state and local Departments of Health, as well as private hospitals. (Note: NDMS was returned to DHHS (US Department of Health and Human Services) on January 1, 2007 by an Act of Congress).

Organization

NDMS has three major components^[1]:

1. Emergency medical response by civilian medical teams, equipment, and supplies to a disaster area when local medical resources are overwhelmed
2. Movement of ill and injured patients from a disaster area to areas unaffected by the disaster
3. Definitive care of patients at hospitals in areas unaffected by the disaster.

Over 8,000 NDMS civilian volunteer medical personnel are organized into a number of types of medical teams, designed to accomplish the emergency medical response mission.

NDMS Teams

The NDMS is made up of several smaller teams that each focus on a particular area of disaster relief.

• Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) - provides medical care during a disaster or other incident.^[2]
• National Medical Response Team (NMRT) - provides mass decontamination and medical care to victims of a release of Weapons of Mass Destruction, or a large scale release of Hazardous Material.
• Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team (DMORT) - provide victim identification and mortuary services during a disaster or other incident.^[3]
• National Veterinary Response Team (NVRT) - provides assistance in assessing the need for veterinary services following major disasters or emergencies^[4]
• Federal Coordinating Centers (FCCs) - recruit hospitals and maintain local non-Federal hospital participation in the NDMS and coordinate exercise development and emergency plans^[5]
• National Pharmacy Response Team (NPRT) - assists in chemoprophylaxis or vaccination of large numbers of citizens in response to an emergency involving a disease outbreak^[6]
• International Medical Surgical Response Team (IMSuRT) - widely recognized as a specialized team, trained and equipped to establish a fully capable field surgical facility anywhere in the world.^[7]
• National Nurse Response Team (NNRT) - A specialty DMAT designed for a scenario requiring hundreds of nurses to assist in chemoprophylaxis, mass vaccination programs, or situations that overwhelm the nation’s supply of nurses.^[8]

Over 1,800 civilian hospitals in the U.S. are members of NDMS. Their role is to provide approximately 100,000 treatment beds to support NDMS operations in an emergency. When a civilian or military crisis requires the activation of the NDMS system, participating hospitals communicate their available bed space to a central control point. Patients can be distributed to a number of hospitals without overwhelming any one facility with casualties.

Operations

Under the NDMS, movement (evacuation) of patients from a disaster area is coordinated by the FCCs in each of the 10 FEMA regions. The actual transport is conducted by the Department of Defense. Patients arriving in a region are then dispersed to a local NDMS participating hospital.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005, the NDMS system activated almost all of their civilian medical teams to assist victims in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi; helped evacuate hundreds of medical patients from the affected areas; and augmented medical staffing levels at hospitals impacted by the evacuations.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "National Disaster Medical System". FEMA. http://www.ndms.fema.gov/index.html. Retrieved September 7, 2006. 
2. ^ "DMAT". National Disaster Medical System. http://www.ndms.fema.gov/dmat.html. Retrieved September 7, 2006. ^{[dead link]}
3. ^ "DMORT". National Disaster Medical System. http://www.ndms.fema.gov/dmort.html. Retrieved September 7, 2006. ^{[dead link]}
4. ^ "VMAT". National Disaster Medical System. http://www.ndms.fema.gov/vmat.html. Retrieved September 7, 2006. ^{[dead link]}
5. ^ "FCC". National Disaster Medical System. http://www.ndms.fema.gov/fcc.html. Retrieved September 7, 2006. ^{[dead link]}
6. ^ "NPRT". National Disaster Medical System. http://www.ndms.fema.gov/nprt.html. Retrieved September 7, 2006. ^{[dead link]}
7. ^ "IMSuRT". Mass General Hospital. http://www.mgh.harvard.edu/about/newsarticle.aspx?id=1485. Retrieved January 12, 2009. 
8. ^ "NNRT". National Disaster Medical System. http://www.ndms.fema.gov/nnrt.html. Retrieved September 7, 2006. ^{[dead link]}

Other sources

• Knouss RF, "National Disaster Medical System", Public Health Rep, 2001;116(suppl 2):49–52.

External links

• "National Disaster Medical System". http://www.ndms.fema.gov/. Retrieved September 7, 2006. 
• National Medical Response Team - Central
• Ohio-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team - Toledo, Ohio
• RI-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team - Rhode Island