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The New Mexico Modular Emergency Medical System (NM MEMS) Framework
Overview | Contents | Chart | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
NM MEMS planning assumptions include:
a. The best place (economy of personnel and availability of
specialty resources and infrastructure) for sick or injured patients to be treated
is within the existing health care infrastructure.
b. An assessment of existing local capacities and capabilities must occur first
in order to develop a response plan for overwhelming medical and patient surge
and to identify the thresholds for activation.
c. The vast majority of incidents will not produce overwhelming patient surge,
deplete routinely available resources or damage the healthcare infrastructure.
d. Overwhelming medical surge or infrastructure incapacity may lead to the activation
of alternative patient flow and patient care techniques.
e. NM MEMS planning must consider an environment of diminishing or depleted resources
with little to no immediate re-supply of essential personnel, medical supplies,
pharmaceuticals and/or services.
f. During a response to overwhelming patient surge, the need for resources will
outweigh their availability.
g. Guidance for identifying thresholds for NM MEMS functions implementation will
be provided by the State and executed in local jurisdictions based upon the assessment
of available health system capacity and resource management, and will be based
on incident demands.
h. NM MEMS planning will be locally determined and coordinated, transparent and
community-based.
i. The provision of medical services during overwhelming patient surge will be
coordinated and supported through a Multi-Agency Coordination (MAC) System.
j. NM MEMS functions and assumptions are related to and dependent upon the implementation
of a NM MEMS medical surge response plan only.
k. NM MEMS represents the “what” or the goal for overwhelming medical surge planning
and a coordinated local planning process determines the “how” by developing an
effective response plan.
l. All medical surge response plans will be National Incident Management System
(NIMS) compliant.
m. Response to all medical or patient surge incidents, whether minor, moderate,
or overwhelming in scope, will be practiced, evaluated and improved through community
and statewide exercises and drills.
n. Medical surge plan efficacy will be measured through exercises and drills.
