Region 1 Disaster Medical Health Coordination (RDMHC)

Los Angeles  I  Orange  I  Ventura  I  Santa Barbara  I  San Luis Obispo

Counties

Overview

The Regional Disaster Medical and Health Coordinator (RDMHC) is an appointed position in each of the six Mutual Aid Regions established by Health and Safety Code §1797.152. The RDMHC coordinates disaster information, medical and health mutual aid and assistance within the Mutual Aid Region or in support of other affected Mutual Aid Region(s). The Regional Disaster Medical and Health Specialist (RDMHS) is a component of the RDMHC Program that directly supports regional preparedness, response, mitigation and recovery activities.

Like law enforcement, fire, utilities and the other emergency support functions (ESFs), the health and medical sector has identified the importance of creating systems of mutual aid and incident command. Using ICS and SEMS (California's Standardized Emergency Management System), the state is divided into six mutual aid regions, each with an RDMHS (regional disaster medical health specialist) to assist with cross-county and state-to-local medical/health information and resource flow

according to the CDPH/EMSA Emergency Operations Manual (EOM). The EOM is the guideline which steers disaster medical and health operations from the OA (County) to region to state levels.

Before a disaster the RDMHS is responsible for teaching EOM courses, assisting the counties in Region I (San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange) with their policies, exercises and planning, and making sure that counties are sharing ideas and resources across jurisdictional boundaries and assisting with regional projects such an Ebola transportation plan, regional Joint Information System and the Statewide Medical and Health Exercise.

During a disaster the RDMHS may report to the Regional Emergency Operations Center (REOC) or County EOC or Medical Coordination Center (MCC) to assist with information flow to state medical and health (CDPH/EMSA) and emergency management (CalOES) representatives as well as resource requests and fulfillment.