By Les Gura

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the federal government sought to establish a framework in which doctors, nurses and civilians could assist at emergency scenes in an organized way.

Today, the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) has nearly 1,000 units in all 50 states and most territories, and it includes more than 200,000 volunteers; in the 2014 fiscal year, the MRCs reported more than 17,000 activities around the country.

Most important, the MRC has broadened its mission beyond emergency care.

Local MRCs today are fulfilling a crucial role around the country in initiatives that improve the health of communities, often the underserved.

“We encourage MRCs to keep in mind access-to-care issues,’’ says Capt. Robert Tosatto, director of the Medical Reserve Corps, which is part of the Office of the Surgeon General, Department of Health and Human Services.

“We want them thinking about health literacy,’’ Tosatto says. “MRC volunteers are community members with background and knowledge and training to provide the best information in some communities; they can serve as translators of scientific information to their community.’’

The federal government does not mandate or require any specific programs of individual Medical Reserve Core units, which may be set up through local health departments, emergency management agencies, nonprofits, hospitals and health systems. The units decide themselves—with their sponsoring or affiliated agencies—the issues with which they get involved.

Tosatto says MRC units are involved with:

• Support for community events such as marathons, county fairs and expositions. MRC unit members were on hand at the Boston Marathon in 2013 to offer help to emergency agencies after the bombings at the end of that race.
• Local outreach to underserved populations. For example, a program in Alabama has offers a volunteer physician on a bus that travels to areas in need where populations can’t get to a doctor.
• Assisting or running flu clinics and other vaccination or preventive health fairs.

Busiest Medical Reserve Corps in country

The busiest MRC in the nation is based in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, with more than 100 activities each of the last few years.

Jean Roma, program director of the Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard MRCs (the latter is a separate unit), is a retired clinic nurse specialist in public health. She says the key to local units making an impact is that “you have to be willing to work with people to get the best plan for the community.’’

“It takes a village to get this stuff done,’’ she says.

This year, the Cape Cod MRC did a program on tick safety in which it gave out Frisbees containing protection messages such as “Tick check every day’’ and “Find a tick/Tell an adult.’’ The program targeted many people who come to Cape Cod every summer as campers or camp counselors, she said, because many of them are not from New England, where ticks are more prevalent.

The unit in the past did a sun protection program in which unit members set up a tent on the beach and educated adults and children about sunscreen protection. Roma says Cape Cod MRC volunteers also assisted restaurants in meeting a state law requiring someone on every shift to be trained in choke saving. The MRC had its certified instructors teach classes to restaurant employees.

“We trained a couple of thousand people in that,’’ Roma says. “We had 200 restaurant employees in one day in Nantucket, and within a week got an email that someone’s life had been saved by an employee who’d gotten training.’’

“And we do all this free of charge. All of the MRC programs are free.’’

Go here if you’re interested in starting a Medical Reserve Core or joining one or want to learn the location of the nearest MRC unit.