Using exercises and drills to prepare a Volunteer Medical Corps

A coalition of local health departments from seven Massachusetts towns established a Volunteer Medical Corps (VMC), in order to work collaboratively to increase their community's collective capacity to respond to a public health emergency. Following the recruitment phase, the coalition engaged the Harvard School of Public Health Center for Public Health Preparedness to develop and lead a series of exercises to test response protocols and train volunteers. First, VMC leaders and volunteers participated in a notification drill, designed to test communications systems, promote volunteer understanding of emergency notification procedures, and assess volunteer availability to respond. A month later, the VMC held a full-scale emergency dispensing site exercise, where volunteers were assigned to participate either as clients or staff in one of six units: Clerical, Triage, Screening, Dispensing, Health Education, and First Aid. While most local health departments in Massachusetts have participated in tabletop exercises, few have held functional or full-scale exercises in light of the resources required to plan and implement such events. The unique collaboration among these communities allowed them to pool their resources and collectively exercise VMC volunteers. By providing opportunities for hands-on practice, VMC volunteers came away with a significantly improved understanding of their potential roles and responsibilities during an emergency. These interactive experiences enabled volunteers to better perform emergency response functions, and empowered them to be more engaged in emergency preparedness activities within their communities. It is our hope that these experiences can serve as an innovative model for increasing local emergency response capacity.