Calling on NDMS

A Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) is a group of professional and para-professional medical personnel designed to provide medical care during public health emergencies or National Security Special Events (NSSEs).

Teams are capable of performing a wide range of patient-care functions in a variety of mission scenarios, including but not limited to:

• primary, acute, stabilizing emergency care
• emergency department decompression
• inpatient care augmentation
• supporting patient movement
• stabilization and transfer of all patients including ill/injured and nursing home patients
• staffing casualty/patient collection points
• triage services
• mass prophylaxis
• medical site/shelter operations

DMATs are a response resource that incorporates scalable deployment configuration sizes with specific clinical, non-clinical and leadership personnel. DMAT team members include advanced clinicians (nurse practitioners/physician assistants), medical officers, registered nurses, respiratory therapists, paramedics, pharmacists, safety specialists, logistical specialists, information technologists, communication and administrative specialists.

DMATs deploy to disaster sites with sufficient supplies and equipment to sustain themselves for a period of 72 hours while providing medical care at a fixed or temporary medical care site. The personnel are typically activated for a period of two weeks.

The Trauma and Critical Care Teams (TCCT) are composed of medical professionals responsible for providing trauma and critical care support during public health emergencies and special events including National Security Special Events (NSSEs).

TCCTs can provide a deployable advance unit, augmentation to existing medical facilities, or establish a stand-alone field hospital. The capabilities of the TCCT include:

• critical care
• operative care
• emergency care
• advanced trauma life support

TCCT deployments often occur in austere environments. Personnel are deployed for fourteen day periods or longer and they leave when local medical resources are sufficiently recovered or have been supplemented by other organizations.

Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team (DMORT) provide victim identification and mortuary services. DMORT provides expertise and support for:

• tracking and documenting of human remains and personal effects
• establishing temporary morgue facilities
• assisting in the determination of cause and manner of death
• collecting ante-mortem data
• collection of medical/dental records or DNA of victims from next of kin to assist in the forensic identification of the victims
• performing postmortem data collection
• documentation during field retrieval and morgue operations
• performing forensic dental pathology and forensic anthropology methods
• processing and re-interment of disinterred remains preparation

DMORT can also provide other technical assistance and consultation on fatality management and mortuary affairs as appropriate. Teams are composed of funeral directors, medical examiners, pathologists, forensic anthropologists, finger print specialists, forensic odonatologists, dental assistants, administrative specialist, and security specialist.

While DMORTs works under the delegated jurisdictional authority of the local or state Coroner or Medical Examiner, DMORT personnel, work under the overall command and control of the HHS Emergency Management Group (EMG) and/or the Incident Response Coordination Team (IRCT).

DMORTs may deploy with a Disaster Portable Morgue Unit (DPMU). The DPMU includes equipment and supplies for deployment to a disaster site. It contains a complete morgue with designated workstations for each processing element and prepackaged equipment and supplies.

The Victim Information Center Team (VIC) is responsible for providing support to local authorities during a mass fatality or mass casualty incident by collecting ante-mortem data and serving as liaison to the victims’ families or other responsible parties in support of another NDMS team.

The VIC Team provides support by:

• collecting dental records, medical records, DNA, and other ante-mortem data
• providing subject matter expertise in mass fatalities management and victim information procurement
• training partners to appropriately gather the information required for victim identification from the family interview process
• explaining the HIPAA Privacy Rule Exemption for Medical Examiners and Coroners at 45 CFR 164.512(g)(1) to the medical and dental providers of the victims to facilitate obtaining these records
• coordinating and sharing data with morgue and forensic staff on a regular basis for potential identification
• coordinating with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies by gathering ante-mortem data to facilitate victim identification and manage the missing persons list
• updating the Victim Identification Program (VIP) database
• coordinating the release of remains