National Disaster Medical System
Encyclopedia
The National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) is a section of the United States Department of Health and Human Services
United States Department of Health and Human Services
The United States Department of Health and Human Services is a Cabinet department of the United States government with the goal of protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is "Improving the health, safety, and well-being of America"...
(HHS) responsible for managing Federal government's
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
medical response to major emergencies and disasters.
NDMS’s federal partners include the Federal Emergency Management Agency
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security, initially created by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1978 and implemented by two Executive Orders...
, Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
(DOD), and the Department of Veterans Affairs
United States Department of Veterans Affairs
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs is a government-run military veteran benefit system with Cabinet-level status. It is the United States government’s second largest department, after the United States Department of Defense...
(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:- Emergency medical response by civilian medical teams, equipment, and supplies to a disaster area when local medical resources are overwhelmed
- Movement of ill and injured patients from a disaster area to areas unaffected by the disaster
- Definitive care of patients at hospitalHospitalA hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
s 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 TeamDisaster Medical Assistance TeamA Disaster Medical Assistance Team is a group of professional and para-professional medical personnel organized to provide rapid-response medical care or casualty decontamination during a terrorist attack, natural disaster, or other incident in the United States...
(DMAT) - provides medical care during a disaster or other incident. - 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 TeamDisaster Mortuary Operational Response TeamA Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team or DMORT is a team of experts in the fields of victim identification and mortuary services. DMORTs are activated in response to large scale disasters in the United States to assist in the identification of deceased individuals and storage of the bodies...
(DMORT) - provide victim identification and mortuary services during a disaster or other incident. - National Veterinary Response Team (NVRT) - provides assistance in assessing the need for veterinary services following major disasters or emergencies
- Federal Coordinating Centers (FCCs) - recruit hospitals and maintain local non-Federal hospital participation in the NDMS and coordinate exercise development and emergency plans
- National Pharmacy Response Team (NPRT) - assists in chemoprophylaxisChemoprophylaxisChemoprophylaxis refers to the administration of a medication for the purpose of preventing disease or infection. Antibiotics, for example, may be administered to patients with disorders of immune system function to prevent bacterial infections...
or vaccinationVaccinationVaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...
of large numbers of citizens in response to an emergency involving a disease outbreak - 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.
- 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.
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
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
in the fall of 2005, the NDMS system activated almost all of their civilian medical teams to assist victims in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, and Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
; helped evacuate hundreds of medical patients from the affected areas; and augmented medical staffing levels at hospitals impacted by the evacuations.
Other sources
- Knouss RF, "National Disaster Medical System", Public Health Rep, 2001;116(suppl 2):49–52.