Welcome to the Utah County Medical Reserve Corps

1. Welcome to the Utah County Medical Reserve Corps Amy Cornell-Titcomb UCMRC Coordinator acornelltitcomb@gmail.com

2. Objectives • Define Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) • Name two ways the MRC benefits local communities • Understand the mission of the Utah County Medical Reserve Corps

3. What is the Medical Reserve Corps • The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) was started in 2002 after former President Bush’s state of the union address when he encouraged all Americans to volunteer in their communities • It is an all volunteer unit of both medical and non medical professionals

4. Citizen Corps • A national network of volunteers dedicated to ensuring hometown security • Citizen Corps, along with AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and the Peace Corps are part of the President's USA Freedom Corps, which promotes volunteerism and service nationwide

5. Citizen Corps Continued… • Citizen Corps volunteers work to ensure that their families, homes, and communities are prepared in the event of disaster, emergency, or act of terrorism • One specialized component of that effort is the Medical Reserve Corps

6. MRC at the National Level • The MRC National Program Office is headquartered in the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General. • It functions as a clearinghouse for information and best practices to help communities establish, implement, and maintain MRC units nationwide. • The MRC National Program Office sponsors an annual leadership conference, hosts a Web site, and coordinates with local, state, regional, and national organizations and agencies to help communities achieve their local visions for public health and emergency preparedness

7. Utah County Mission Statement • The Utah County Medical Reserve Corps(UCRMC) is dedicated to enhancing response capabilities to disasters or emergency events and increasing the emergency preparedness of local citizens in Utah County.

8. What We Do • MRC is a national program that establishes community-based teams of volunteers, both medical and non-medical • Volunteers contribute their skills and expertise throughout the year and during times of community need • The overarching goal is to promote health education, and improving public health preparedness

9. What We Do Continued… • MRCs consist of locally based medical and non-medical volunteers who can assist their communities during emergencies such as epidemics, natural disasters or acts of terrorism • Volunteers also provide education • Support for local health department

10. Who Can Join • Practicing, retired or otherwise employed medical professionals • Doctors • Nurses • Emergency Medical Technicians • Pharmacists/Pharmacy Technicians • Dentists • Veterinarians • All other medical personnel

11. Who Can Join Continued… • Public health professionals • Clergy • Teachers • HAM radio operators • All other non-medical personnel

12. Tasks Performed by MRC • Triage • Acute Medical Care • Mental Health Services • Pediatric Services • Social Services • Surge Staff • Alternate Treatment Sites

13. Tasks Continued…. • Registration • Translators • Float Staff • Child Care providers • Traffic/Patient Control • Runners • Patient Educator • Security • Inventory/ Logistics

14. Why We Do It • Major emergencies can overwhelm the capabilities of the health care system during the first 12 to 72 hours • Medical and other health volunteers provide important “surge” capacity during that critical period • Volunteers are needed to act as medical screeners, vaccinators, greeters, triage staff, translators, educators, data entry

15. Why We Do It Continued… • Immediately after an emergency, essential services may be cut off • local disaster relief and government responders may not be able to correct this for at least 72 hours • Knowing what to do to protect yourself and your household is essential

16. Liability Protection • Under the Volunteer Protection Act of 1997 Federal Law, people who volunteer for governmental entities cannot be held liable for any harm (except for a harm caused by operation of a motor vehicle or a harm caused by criminal conduct or gross or reckless misconduct) that they may cause while engaged in volunteer activity. This MRC qualifies under federal law, so if you volunteer, you are not exposing yourself to additional legal liability.

17. Liability Continued….. • Uniform Emergency Volunteer Health Practitioners Act Utah has enacted a uniform emergency volunteer health practitioners act, which aims to establish a robust and redundant system to quickly and efficiently facilitate the deployment and use of licensed practitioners to provide health and veterinary services in response to declared incidents of disasters and emergencies. This act (1) establishes a system for the use of volunteer health practitioners capable of functioning autonomously even when routine methods of communication are disrupted, (2) provides reasonable safeguards to assure that health practitioners are appropriately licensed and regulated to protect the public’s health, and (3) allows states to regulate, direct and restrict the scope and extent of services provided by volunteer health practitioners to promote disaster recovery operations.

18. Core Competencies • Describe steps to protect self, family, team, community • Personal/family preparedness • Know and follow chain of command • MRC operates under the Incident Command System • Understand role of MRC in public health and emergency response • Communication • Mental health (yours and others) • Follow procedures • Know your limits

19. Utah Responds • Our volunteer registry system • All volunteers must register with this system in order to be deployable and badged • Missions, deployments, ect. will come through the Utah Responds System • MRC volunteers cannot self deploy • www.utahresponds.org

20. More Information • www.ucmrc.com • Utah’s Website • www.medicalreservecorps.gov • National Website