The Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS) is formerly a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Grant Program that provided funding to the 124 largest jurisdictions to support the integration of emergency management, health, and medical systems into a coordinated response to mass casualty incidents caused by any hazard. The MMRS program reduces the consequences of a mass casualty incident during the initial period of a response by having augmented existing local operational response systems before the incident occurs.
The Hampton Roads Metropolitan Medical Response System (HRMMRS) was developed under the direction of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission (HRPDC) in 1999. It includes the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach and Williamsburg and the counties of Gloucester, Isle of Wight, James City, Southampton, Surry and York, and the Town of Smithfield. It covers an area of 2900 square miles and a population of approximately 1.7 million. The HRPDC contracts with the Tidewater EMS Council to manage the activities of the HRMMRS. Between 1999 and 2014 the Hampton Roads region received nearly $10 million in Homeland Security grants to develop and support the MMRS system. A local assessment from the Hampton Roads jurisdictions provides for ongoing program sustainment.
The HRMMRS supports and enhances Hampton Roads public safety, hospital, public health, and emergency management response capabilities to manage mass casualty incidents.
The HRMMRS supports, equips and trains a 44-member (213 member call group) Hampton Roads Metropolitan Medical Strike Team (HRMMST) that provides on-scene expertise and resources to the Incident Commander during a disaster. The HRMMST is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives (CBRNE) trained medical emergency response team that maintains a redundant response capability of personnel, trucks, trailers, equipment, supplies, and communications on the Peninsula and Southside.
The HRMMRS maintains a pharmaceutical cache of nerve antidotes, antibiotics and other medications that are immediately available in all EMS agencies, hospitals and public health departments in the Hampton Roads area.
The HRMMRS has purchased personnel protective equipment for public safety agency, hospital, public health and medical examiner personnel; decontamination systems for 15 hospitals; radiation detectors for fire/EMS and law enforcement vehicles; 11 Disaster Medical Support Units, 10 Mass Casualty / Evacuation Transport Units and 13 Shelter Support Units; CBRNE identification equipment for HAZMAT teams; emergency generators for shelters; communication equipment for hospitals, public health and HAZMAT teams; medication temperature control equipment for responder vehicles; and supplies/equipment for mass prophylaxis dispensing centers.
The HRMMRS funds and provides staff support for ongoing training and exercises in mass casualty incident and disaster response.
For more information about the HRMMRS, contact David Long, MA, Program Manager, at (757) 963-0632, ext 304 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit www.hrmmrs.org.
The Hampton Roads Metropolitan Medical Response System (HRMMRS) is managed by the Tidewater EMS Council through an agreement with the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.
