The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) is a network in the U.S. of community-based units initiated and established by local organizations to meet the public health needs of their communities. It is sponsored by the Office of the Surgeon General of the United States. The MRC consists of medical and non-medical volunteers who contribute to local health initiatives, such as activities meeting the Surgeon General’s [1] priorities for public health, and supplement existing response capabilities in time of emergency. The MRC provides the structure necessary to pre-identify, credential, train, and activate medical and public health volunteers. In the fall of 2007 the name was modified by the United States Department of Health and Human Services office to read "Office of the Civilian Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps".
As of February 16, 2010, there were 878 local MRC units and more than 200,000 volunteers. MRC units are present in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Guam, Palau, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The events of September 11, 2001, underscored a need for a mechanism to better utilize volunteer medical and public health professionals. Medical providers who wanted to help alleviate the strain on local medical systems where the terror incidents occurred arrived on their own and at personal risk. Despite their intentions, their presence became problematic for emergency managers due to difficulties that arose surrounding the use of spontaneous, unaffiliated volunteers.
Some of these issues included volunteer credentialing, liability, and management.
Subsequent emergency situations, such as the anthrax mailings in October 2001 further highlighted the need for an organized volunteer response system. Federal, state, and local response assets were able to provide prophylactic doses of antibiotics to thousands of individuals who may have been exposed to anthrax spores. Leaders quickly realized, however, that they would have been overwhelmed if the number of individuals at risk was much larger. Point of distribution sites would need more workers, including many more health professionals.
Lessons-learned sessions and after-action reports from the response to September 11, 2001 and the anthrax mailings discussed the need for a more organized approach to catastrophic disasters. They also identified many of the issues that needed to be addressed, including volunteer pre-identification, registration, credentialing, training, liability, and activation.
The MRC was founded after President Bush’s 2002 State of the Union Address, in which he asked all Americans to volunteer in support of their country. The MRC is a partner program of Citizen Corps, a national network of volunteers dedicated to ensuring hometown security. Citizen Corps, along with the Corporation for National and Community Service and the Peace Corps, are part of the President’s USA Freedom Corps, which promotes volunteerism and service nationwide.
The MRC also has a cooperative agreement with the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). This agreement enables NACCHO to assist the Office of the Surgeon General's Office of the Civilian Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps in enhancing MRC units' ability to meet local, state, and national needs through collaboration, coordination, and capacity-building activities. These activities include:
Coordinating the distribtuion of grant funding
Developing a national marketing strategy
Publishing a quarterly national newsletter
Assisting in the planning of regional and national meetings
Developing materials, resources, and tools to strengthen the knowledge and skills of MRC members
In addition, NACCHO's relationship with almost 3,000 local health departments further serves as an avenue to promote the MRC program at the local level.
Differences among communities may require alternative approaches to responding to natural disasters and emergencies. The terms medical and reserve indicate that trained personnel are available to respond to emergencies requiring support to the community’s health and medical resources. Corps refers to an organized body of individuals with a similar function, consistent with the example of Citizen Corps and the USA Freedom Corps.
Despite differences among communities, all communities can benefit from the MRC. Many MRC units have found that the medical in Medical Reserve Corps should not limit them to recruiting only medical professionals. MRC units nationwide have determined a need for volunteers with various professional backgrounds to meet the health needs of their local communities. These include but are not limited to chaplains, to assist with mental health activities; attorneys, to assist with addressing issues of liability; and IT personnel, to assist with database management.
Locally, each MRC unit is led by an MRC Unit Director and/or Coordinator, who matches community needs with volunteer capabilities. Local MRC leaders are also responsible for building partnerships, ensuring the sustainability of the local unit, and managing resources. Partnerships typically include local public health and emergency response agencies, community businesses, and neighboring MRC's. Local MRC units are typically housed under Health Departments or other local governmental organizations.
Nationally, the MRC is guided by the Office of the Civilian Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps (also known as the MRC Program Office), which is housed in the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General. The MRC Program Office serves as a clearinghouse for information and best practices to help communities establish, implement, and maintain MRC units nationwide. It sponsors an annual leadership conference, hosts a Web site, and coordinates with local, state, regional, and national organizations and agencies to help communities' preparedness. There are also Regional Coordinators (RCs) in all ten of the Department of Health and Human Services regions.
Many states have appointed State MRC Coordinators to help plan, organize and integrate MRC activities within the State. The MRC Program Office staff and the RCs collaborate with the State Coordinators to better integrate with local and state planning and response activities. All local MRC units are encouraged to collaborate with State Coordinators.
There are several benefits to establishing an MRC unit, as it:
To start an MRC unit, first determine if there is a unit in your local area. A list of the MRC units, their locations, and contact information is available on the Find MRC Units page of the MRC Web site. If you are unable to find an MRC unit in your area, contact your region’s MRC RC or your state’s MRC State Coordinator for information on other MRC units in your area. If there is no MRC unit in your area, you can start one. Each community is different, so its approach to establishing an MRC unit will be different.
Establishing an MRC unit consists of:
To register, complete and submit the registration form. MRC Program Office staff review the application, and State Coordinators and RCs provide consultation as necessary. Upon approval, the MRC unit will be added to the online directory.
For more information, see How to Start an MRC.
Possible front-line medical and public health volunteers include:
Possible administrative and other support volunteers include:
Activities include, but are not limited to:
The first step in becoming an MRC volunteer is to locate the MRC unit closest to you. Access the list of registered MRC units to find contact information and consult with your local unit about how you can get involved.
MRC units must partner with community response agencies. To learn more about partnering with your local MRC unit, read Coordinating With Your Local Response Partners and access the list of registered MRC units for contact information. To access a list of national partner organizations recently spotlighted on the MRC Web site, see the MRC Spotlights.
“Medical Reserve Corps volunteers provide a tremendous asset at the local, state, and national level. Committed to enhancing the nation's public health system, this highly trained volunteer workforce contributes countless hours to strengthening a community's response to disasters and other public health emergencies."
“Not only is the MRC emergency preparedness and response, but it is surge capacity, which is very much needed at the local level and the department of health for any community. I feel that local boards of health should champion the MRC, and even help to start units within their community.”
“The Medical Reserve Corps program has the potential to make significant contributions to the health security of our people and our nation. The MRC stands out as a venue for volunteers from all professions and disciplines to assist in the preparation for and response to all Public Health Emergencies and can serve as a vehicle to better integrate response activities across geographical boundaries and all sectors of the health and public health communities.”
State of California
State of Florida
State of Iowa
State of Kansas
State of Maine
State of Maryland
State of Massachusetts
State of Minnesota
State of Missouri
State of New Mexico
See National MRC Site for information on these New Mexico Units:
State of New York
State of North Carolina
State of Ohio
State of Oklahoma
State of Pennsylvania
State of Tennessee
State of Virginia
State of Washington
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