Ndms Serves The Needs Of Hurricane Victims
Release Date: December 8, 2005
Release Number: 1603-207
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Baton Rouge , La. -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Disaster Medical System's (NDMS) mission is to maintain a national capability to deliver quality medical care to the victims and responders of a domestic disaster. NDMS has medical, veterinarian, and mortuary assistance teams located around the country. There are more than 8,000 NDMS personnel nationwide who were all used following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The team has supported six hospitals, three special needs shelters and eight additional sites throughout the state.
NDMS consists of several specialized teams including:
- 45 Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs), which consist of a group of professional and paraprofessional medical personnel capable of providing medical care following disasters;
- 11 Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Teams (DMORT), which consist of private citizens with specialized training and experience to help in the recovery, identification and processing of deceased victims;
- Four National Medical Response Teams, to deal with the medical consequences of incidents potentially involving chemical, biological or nuclear materials;
- Five Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams, which include clinical veterinarians, pathologists, animal health technicians, microbiologists and others who assist animal disaster victims and provide care to search dogs; and
- Three International Medical Surgical Response Teams,-- highly specialized team, trained and equipped to establish a fully capable free standing field surgical facility anywhere in the world.
Before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, NDMS staged nine DMATs in the area. Some of the NDMS responses have been being the first team to treat patients before landfall. The team was also the first team in the Ice Arena during landfall on Aug. 29. Eight DMAT teams worked around the clock at the airport during the peak of patient movement operations.
The DMAT teams have provided care in nine parishes overall. Presently, NDMS is still providing primary care to three parishes: Cameron, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes with a 184 personnel and logistics staff.
During the course of this disaster, NDMS has treated more than 63,163 patients, and more than 68,654 patients have been immunized.
NDMSs' DMORTs have processed 905 human remains, 656 have been identified, 244 have not been identified, 507 have been released to their families and 147 are waiting to be released. As of Sept. 18, DMORT's staff was 255 but has since decreased to 126. NDMS expects to demobilize by the middle of December. This has been the longest deployment for the NDMS team than any other disaster.
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: Thursday, 08-Dec-2005 17:26:40