Disaster Medical Assistance Team - Organization

Organization

There are 80 NDMS Teams of which 55 are DMATs spread out across the country and are formed by local groups of health care providers and support personnel. Under the National Response Framework (NRF), DMATs are defined according to their level of capability and experience. Once a level of training and proficiency has been shown, the higher level of priority is given to the team. In addition to medical DMATs, there are other response teams that specialize in specific types of medical emergencies such as hazardous material handling and decontamination and LRATs, which are primarily Logistics response teams to support any of the response teams under the NDMS umbrella. Such other types of teams are the DMORTs (Disaster Mortuary Operations Response Teams, NVRTs (National Veterinary Medical Response Teams), IMSuRTs (International Medical/Surgical Response Teams), and the IRCTs (Incident Response Coordination Teams).

A DMAT deploys to disaster sites with the assurance by OPEO that supplies and equipment twill arrive at or before the teams arrive at a disaster site, so that they can be self-sufficient for 72 hours while providing medical care at a fixed or temporary medical care site. Responsibilities may include triaging patients, providing high-quality medical care in adverse and austere environments, and preparing patients for evacuation. Other situations may involve providing primary medical care or augmenting overloaded local health care facilities and staffs. DMATs have been used to implemement mass inoculations and other immediate needs to large populations. Under rare circumstances, disaster victims may be evacuated to a different locale to receive medical care. DMATs may be activated to support patient reception and distribution of patients to hospitals.