Disaster Medical Assistant Team (DMAT)

About Simulation Education - DMAT

The UF Center for Simulation Education and Safety Research is currently preparing for a casualty training exercise with Homeland Security’s Disaster Medical Assistant Team (DMAT) FL-4.

A DMAT is an independent non-profit organization of professional and paraprofessional medical personnel, supported by logistical and administrative staff. These individuals, together as a team, are capable of providing rapid-response emergency medical care to temporally supplement local medical care during a disaster or other event.

DMATs can deploy to disaster sites with sufficient supplies and standardized equipment to sustain themselves for a period of 72 hours and can treat up to 250 patients per day. They can provide medical care at fixed or temporary sites. In mass casualty incidents, their responsibilities include triaging patients, providing austere medical care and preparing patients for evacuation. In other types of situations, DMATs may provide primary health care and/or may serve to augment overloaded local health care staffs. In addition to the standard DMATs, there are highly specialized DMATs that deal with specific medical conditions such as crush injury, burn and mental health emergencies.

DMATs are principally a community resource available to support local, regional and state requirements. However, as a national resource they can be Federalized, as part of the National Disaster Medical System, to provide interstate aid.