The National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) is a federally coordinated initiative that augments the nation's emergency medical response capability.  The four federal partners in NDMS are Department of Health and Human Services (U.S. Public Health Service), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Defense, and Department of Veterans Affairs.  The overall purpose of NDMS is to establish a single national medical response capability for:      

• assisting state and local authorities in dealing with the medical and public health effects of major peacetime disasters; and

• providing support to the military medical system in caring for casualties resulting from overseas armed conflicts.

NDMS has two major components:

• Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs) with necessary supplies and equipment that will be dispatched to a disaster site within the United States from the country's major metropolitan areas.

• A voluntary hospital system that will provide definitive care to disaster victims who are evacuated out of the disaster area to designated NDMS metropolitan areas.

In peacetime, NDMS will only be activated when state resources have been overwhelmed by a disaster and a request has been made for federal assistance.  The Department of Defense can activate the system for casualties of an overseas armed conflict.

The NDMS is based on the use of metropolitan areas that were selected primarily for their concentration of hospitals and their proximity to airports.  The linkages between NDMS and non-federal hospitals are made by the NDMS Federal Coordinating Centers (FCCs) that are designated to oversee NDMS activities in these geographical areas.   Each FCC coordinates all aspects of NDMS implementation, planning, exercise and operation within the designated area of responsibility.

VA's Role in NDMS

Some VA medical centers are designated as NDMS FCCs.  They have the responsibility for the development, implementation, maintenance and evaluation of the local NDMS program.  EMSHG's Area Emergency Managers (AEMs) are assigned to each VISN to support this effort and assist local VA management in fulfilling this responsibility.

FCC Guide

FCC PRC POC Listing

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