EMS Response and Management During Multi-Jurisdiction Emergencies

¶ … Management System: Role of EMS EMS Duties during Emergency Operations The Emergency Operations Plan for most municipalities in the United States defines how emergency services will respond to a disaster. A good example is the one outlined by the City of St. Pete Beach in Pinellas County, Florida (St. Pete Beach City Commission, 2011). Based on their analysis, the main hazards for their municipality are flooding due to heavy rainfall, hazardous materials storage and transportation, transportation accidents, tornados, hurricanes, and coastal erosion (p. 27).

The frequency of these incidents range from dozens per year to a major hurricane once every 50 years. In St. Pete Beach, if an incident can be effectively handled by their own resources the response is organized using the National Incident Management System (NIMS) (p. 33). The incident commander will control the response, including first responders, even if more than one jurisdiction is involved. Support is provided by four section chiefs defined by the city: operations, logistics, planning, and finance.

Should the emergency require a response beyond the capabilities of the City of St. Pete Beach, the city manager may activate the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) (St. Pete Beach City Commission, 2011, p. 33). This would likely trigger a request for support from the Pinellas County EOC. The nature and magnitude of the emergency services called into action will depend on the nature of the disaster/emergency. Should the situation require, additional resources from local, state, and federal agencies will be requested using the modular concept of NIMS.

The EOC, in turn, will implement policy decisions and coordinat emergency services across multiple jurisdictions. According to the assignment of responsibilities for the City of St. Pete Beach, emergency medical services (EMS) are the responsibility of the fire chief (St. Pete Beach City Commission, 2011, p. 37). The fire chief is second in command to the city manager and serves as EOC operations section chief. Should the city manager be unable to serve as EOC manager, the fire chief would assume this responsibility.

The fire chief is responsible for all contractual obligations under the EMS Authority, which defines the scope of practice for EMS personnel. The four phases of an emergency or disaster response are preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation (St. Pete Beach City Commission, 2011, p. 33). The goal of the response phase is to minimize the short-term impact of a disaster or emergency, by reducing the number of casualties and providing transport for evacuation.

Specifically, EMS personnel would be called to assist in the evacuation of hospitals, clinics, and long-term care facilities, depending on medical needs of the patients and residents (p. 62-64). EMS personnel may be required to adapt to a variety of vehicles during the evacuation, including the use of school busses. The recovery phase may require the local provision of medical services in the event that healthcare facilities have been damaged.

EMS personnel and equipment could provide a temporary solution until better services could be established, such as setting up temporary clinics at shelters. The Emergency Operations Plan for the City of St. Pete Beach calls for.