TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – June 26, 2010) – The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care has deployed Ontario’s Emergency Medical Assistance Team (EMAT) to support capacity at the Huntsville District Memorial Hospital site of Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare. In anticipation of the many visitors expected in the region, the ministry has been working with the North Simcoe Muskoka Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) and local health service providers in the Simcoe-Muskoka region for over a year to develop plans to ensure there are minimal disruptions during the G8 summit.
The EMAT is funded by the ministry and is operated by the Sunnybrook-Osler Centre for Prehospital Care (SOCPC), a division of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
“The EMAT is providing additional critical care capacity in the region as part of a comprehensive health care plan to support the needs of this community”, said Robert Burgess, SOCPC Senior Director.
The EMAT mobile field hospital has been erected directly adjacent to the Huntsville District Memorial Hospital.
The Emergency Medical Assistance Team (EMAT)
Backgrounder
Q1. What is the Emergency Medical Assistance Team (EMAT)?
The EMAT is a part of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s (the ministry) health emergency response program and is an important component of Ontario’s overall emergency response capacity. The EMAT is funded by the ministry and is operated by Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. The EMAT is a 56-bed mobile field hospital that may be deployed by the ministry within 24-hours to any road-accessible community in Ontario. The unit provides the capacity to provide ongoing treatment for up to 20 acute care and 36 intermediate care patients and/or a staging and triage base for patients prior to transporting them to acute care hospitals and is medically self-sustainable (supplies, equipment, power, and personnel) for 72 hours.
Q2. What kind of health emergency response services does the EMAT provide?
The EMAT has the capacity to provide ongoing treatment for up to 20 acute care and 36 intermediate care patients and/or triage. The EMAT has expertise in: patient isolation in the case of an infectious disease outbreak; the provision of medical support and first receiver cold zone decontamination in the case of a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) incidents; and assisting with managing patients in a mass casualty situation. If any jurisdiction in Ontario finds that it does not have the capacity to respond effectively to a health incident or emergency, the EMAT may be deployed to support the local health system.
Q3. How is the EMAT staffed?
The EMAT uses on-call professional health care providers from across the province who volunteer to work on the EMAT. Team members come from a variety of locations so that no single area is without vital health human resources at any given time. There are approximately 90 members including physicians, nurses, critical and advanced care paramedics and social workers, who are specially trained through the EMAT in health emergency management and response. Once the EMAT is activated, on-call volunteer workers are alerted and transported to the emergency site.
Q4. Who determines when the EMAT is deployed?
Deployment is based on an established set of criteria, including an immediate assessment of the local health care system’s ability to respond to the incident/ emergency, the availability of accommodations, water and food supplies for the EMAT volunteer workers, and an assessment of the emergency site (e.g., safety assessment for the mobile unit and EMAT volunteer workers). To deploy the EMAT, the local hospital and/or health system contacts the ministry with the initial request for EMAT support. If the situation meets the criteria, the ministry activates the EMAT.
Q5. How is the EMAT trained?
The EMAT team has the appropriate training and skills to function as a team in a health emergency environment involving infectious diseases outbreaks, natural disasters, CBRN, and mass causality incidents. The EMAT team trains regularly through full-scale exercises, which involve the participation of local health care organizations, and may also include local police, fire and ambulance services, as well as local municipalities.
Q6. What is the EMAT’s role at the G8?
The EMAT is a mobile field hospital that has been deployed to the G8 in Huntsville, ON to support capacity for the Huntsville hospital. It is onsite as part of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s work to ensure there is capacity for care for all patients.