Team Composition and Equipment
DMATs are composed of physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, respiratory therapists, paramedics, Emergency Medical Technicians, and a variety of other health and logistical personnel. DMATs typically have 120-150 members, from which the Team Leader chooses up to 50 members to deploy on missions requiring a full team. Smaller strike teams or other modular units can also be activated and deployed when less than full-scale deployments are needed. DMAT members are termed "intermittent" federal employees and once activated by federal order, their status changes to that of an active federal employee and follow the GS pay scale. Federally activated DMAT members are protected from tort liability while in operation and are also protected by the provisions of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) which affords the same protections extended to National Guard and Active Duty Military when they deploy in that their full-time jobs are not placed in jeopardy.
DMATs formerly traveled equipped with medical equipment and supplies, large tents, generators, and other support equipment (cache) necessary to establish a Base of Operations, designed to be self-sufficient for up to 72 hours, in a disaster area and treat up to 250 patients per day. However, during the period 2009-2011, ASPR changed the operational tactics and has removed team caches to a small number of federal warehouses, to save money, and thus teams no longer have the opportunity to practice and train with their own caches as was done previously. The capability is similar to an urgent care-level health care facility. In 2005, FEMA increased the response capabilities of DMATs by issuing trucks to teams that have obtained a certain standard of training and capabilities, but these, too, have been reclaimed by ASPR and are only available doing actual deployments, to deliver the caches from the federal warehouses.
Read more about this topic: Disaster Medical Assistance Team
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