Disaster Medical Assistance Teams Provide Crucial Support in New Orleans
Release Date: February 28, 2006
Release Number: 1603-375
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BATON ROUGE, La. -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has deployed Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMAT), part of the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), from Orlando and Miami, Florida, as well as Winston-Salem, N.C., for the purpose of supporting medical care in New Orleans. DMAT and International Medical Surgical Response Team (IMSuRT) members have deployed from Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington.
One site located one block from Tulane Medical Center, at Canal and S. Robertson in New Orleans, consisting of multiple tents and a Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU), is designed to provide emergency care and is capable of holding up to 20 patients for observation and follow-on care. An additional site is located at Tulane and Derbigny Streets and can provide emergency care and hold up to 60 patients. Both facilities will serve 24 hours, seven days a week, through Mar. 3rd, to support anticipated surge in capacity at hospitals in the New Orleans metropolitan area.
The NDMS teams are composed of approximately 210 personnel. The staff includes emergency medicine, primary care and pediatric physicians, assisted by critical care and emergency medical care nurses plus an array of paramedics, including EMTs, and various support staff.
The temporary 20-bed facility includes an emergency room, four critical care beds, 10 acute intensive care unit beds, 10 holding beds for patients who require observation or who will need to be admitted to an area hospital for further management, and a pharmacy.
The DMAT deployment is a result of the ongoing partnership of FEMA, the City of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana. "We are pleased to be able to support the medical care needs of New Orleans, as the city strives to return to normalcy," said Scott Wells, federal coordinating officer.
The National Disaster Medical System is a federally coordinated public/private partnership organized to manage, coordinate and deploy an integrated national medical response. The NDMS medical response component is comprised of over 9,000 private sector medical, mortuary, veterinary medical and support personnel organized into 107 teams across the nation.
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.
Last Modified: Tuesday, 28-Feb-2006 14:49:59