FEMA Disaster Medical Assistance Teams Hard At Work; Federal Teams Have Treated More Than 100,000 Patients
Release Date: September 30, 2005
Release Number: HQ-05-315
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency's Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs) were staged in the Gulf Region prior to Hurricane Katrina made landfall and have been on the ground treating patients ever since. The teams have treated more than 100,000 patients of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to date, the largest population served in the teams' history. FEMA's DMATs are currently setup and working in Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Thibodaux, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, Lafayette and Gonzales, Louisiana; and Beaumont, Livingston, Port Arthur, Nacogdoches, Woodville, Orange, and Waco, Texas.
"FEMA's Disaster Medical Assistance Teams have been on the ground and working continuously to save lives and provide medical services to those impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita," said Acting FEMA Director David Paulison. "They started out in mash-style tent operations during the immediate response and now are supporting hospitals where staff is still evacuated or were themselves victims of the hurricane. They are trained to work in disaster settings and their work has been heroic and tireless through these last four weeks."
The National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), housed at DHS-FEMA, is a cooperative asset-sharing program that augments local medical care when an emergency exceeds the scope of a community's hospital and healthcare resources. The emergency resources -- which include some 8,000 medical and support personnel from across the country -- come from federal, state and local governments, the private sector and civilian volunteers. These teams train together and deploy as a unit from cities across the nation when FEMA calls.
"Our team, made up of doctors, nurses and other medical support team members from Texas supported the Katrina efforts early on and we are now rotating back into Texas after a brief break," said Mona Khanna, M.D., M.P.H, Medical Officer for the Texas 4 DMAT Team, who brings expertise in internal medicine and public disaster health to FEMA medical aid efforts. "Our team arrives in Port Arthur , Texas , today to a hospital that was evacuated and closed so we can provide emergency services to those patients in the area. Many of the regular hospital staff and doctors are dealing with their personal storm damage."
Just one piece of National Disaster Medical System is FEMA's Disaster Medical Assistance Teams. These 55 teams located across the nation deploy to disaster sites to provide medical care at a fixed or temporary medical care site -- a tent, a shelter, a hospital or other facility -- with supplies and equipment sufficient to sustain their operations for a period of 72 hours. Additional supplies then push in behind after their immediate arrival. These teams' responsibilities include providing emergency care for serious needs from stabilizing critical care patients to administering immunizations. The teams provide high-quality medical care despite the adverse and austere environment often found at a disaster site.
In some situations, DMATs may provide primary medical care or may serve to augment overloaded local health care staffs. Under the rare circumstance that disaster victims are evacuated to a different locale to receive definitive medical care, DMATs may be activated to support patient reception and disposition of patients to hospitals.
The National Disaster Medical System assets overseen at DHS-FEMA include:
- 55 Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs), which include federal, state, local and private medical professionals. In addition, there are specialized teams to handle burns, pediatrics, crush injuries, surgery and mental health;
- 11 Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Teams (DMORTs) -- which consist of private citizens with specialized training and experience to help in the recovery, identification and processing of deceased victims;
- 4 National Medical Response Teams (NMRTs), to deal with the medical consequences of incidents potentially involving chemical, biological or nuclear materials;
- 4 Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams (VMATs), which include clinician veterinarians, pathologists, animal health technicians, microbiologists and others who assist animal disaster victims and provide care to search dogs; and
- 3 International Medical Surgical Teams (IMSuRTs) -- one operational and two under development -- highly specialized, trained and equipped to establish a fully capable free-standing field surgical facility anywhere in the world.
- National Disaster Medical Assistance Teams have recently responded to large-scale disasters including The World Trade Center in September 2001, Hurricane Isabel in September 2003 and treated approximately 10,000 patients during the four hurricanes that hit Florida in 2004, in addition to many other disasters.
FEMA prepares the nation for all hazards and manages federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates mitigation activities, trains first responders, works with state and local emergency managers, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S. Fire Administration. FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003.
Last Modified: Friday, 30-Sep-2005 13:16:52