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OVERVIEW |
HOW DO WE KNOW WE NEED MMRS?
MMRS CONCEPT | MMRS RECOMMENDATIONS
MMRS FUNCTIONS | BOSTON MMRS
On July 10, 1995 the U.S. Public Health Service Office of Emergency Preparedness, and State & Local EMS Agencies released the first documents that pointed to the concept of a metropolitan medical strike team (MMST).
The
MMST, through development and evolution, eventually became the Metropolitan
Medical Response System, or MMRS. The purpose: review concepts & challenges
of a medical response to an act of terrorism.
Consistent with the need to ensure effective and appropriate consequence management for Nuclear, Biological and Chemical related events - which are overwhelmingly medical in nature – the MMRS sought to resolve the present inability of civilian pre-hospital EMS agencies to minimize the effects of such attacks.
It was decided that MMRS jurisdictions must plan to mitigate the medical consequences of a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) event by creating a highly trained, readily deployable, fully equipped response system of medical, law enforcement, fire service & other professionals to support local resources.
We know that any incident
involving weapons of mass destruction could cause thousands of casualties
and could occur with little or no warning. 
In
addition, mass panic could ensue, multiple events or attacks could occur simultaneously,
and in responding to an attack, local resources would be at risk of becoming
affected by the attack or by a secondary device.
Much of the impetus for MMRS came about following the Aum Shinrikyo terrorist attack on the Tokyo, Japan, subway station on March 20, 1995. Aum Shinrikyo members carried six packages onto subway trains and punctured the packages with umbrella tips, releasing deadly sarin nerve gas that killed 12 persons and injured 5,498. This was not the first attack Aum Shinrikyo had levied against civilians in Japan, and observers around the globe quickly became more acutely aware of the risk of falling victim to terrorist attacks.
One of the major concerns with the attack in Tokyo was the number of emergency responders who became victims. Lacking appropriate organization and personal protective equipment (PPE), many responders were of little or no use during the hours following the attack. The need for better collaboration, organization, planning, and equipment was clear.
The developers of the
MMRS concept assumed the following:
• Immediate enhanced medical response to a weapons of mass destruction
attack is critical to save lives
• Immediately available local resources will be inadequate and will
become overwhelmed
• Current specialized medical treatment supplies and equipment are inadequate
• Significant and immediate Federal assistance would be required to
augment local response capabilities
• Create specialized
response systems to meet the unique requirements of a WMD terrorist incident.
Specifically, the involvement of multiple public health and public safety
agencies in the response system
• Define the local concept of operations
• Define local activation criteria
• Identify specialized equipment & training requirements for responders
• Identify requirements for pre-positioning specialized medical supplies
such as mass decontamination units and pharmaceutical stockpiles
Positioned at major metropolitan
areas, the MMRS serves the following essential functions:
• Chemical, biological or nuclear agent identification
• Medical intelligence gathering and distribution
• Patient triage and treatment capability and support
• Patient decontamination capability and support
• Coordination of patient transportation to receiving facilities
Many activities are underway as part of the Boston MMRS:
- An interagency management team has been established - including officials from the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC), the BPHC Communicable Disease Control Bureau (CDC), Boston Police and Fire Departments, Boston EMS, Boston Emergency Management Agency, United States Department of Veteran’s Affairs, Massport Police and Fire Departments, the MBTA Police, the Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals, representatives of metro-Boston’s community and neighborhood health centers, and numerous academic institutions. (For more information, see the agencies page)
- Cooperative partnerships
are in place with many of Boston’s schools of pharmacy, public health,
and medicine
- Advanced Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is in place for response personnel. This PPE will allow responders to remain safe during a weapons of mass destruction event
- Boston’s local pharmaceutical cache is in place, ready for deployment in response to an act of terrorism involving chemical or biological weapons
- Syndromic surveillance program in operation through BPHC CDC. This web-based surveillance system monitors daily volume at 10 acute care hospitals, one community health care center, and call-code volume data from Boston EMS and the Massachusetts Poison Control Center, ensuring that, subsequent to a release of a biological or chemical agent, BPHC can rapidly detect changes in healthcare seeking patterns and mount an effective and coordinated investigation and response.
- Expanded citywide personnel training, including:
- All EMS personnel trained to Hazardous Materials Operations level
- All EMS personnel trained to Department of Justice Weapons of Mass Destruction Technician
- 40 EMS personnel trained to Hazardous Materials Technician
- Pilot Hazardous Materials for Hospital Providers course underway, specifically addressing issues of hospital-based care for patients involved in hazardous materials and weapons of mass destruction incidents
- Pilot MMRS Volunteer Responder course underway, preparing volunteer students from Boston’s pharmacy, public health, and medical schools to participate in response to a WMD event or other large-scale emergency
The Boston MMRS continues to cultivate partnerships in Boston’s expansive medical community. Our goal is preparedness, and everyone can be a part of achieving success.
To learn more about opportunities, check out VOLUNTEER.
