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EMAT Criteria for Deployment
If any community in Ontario finds that it does not have the capacity to respond effectively to a health emergency, it can request that EMAT be sent to help under the conditions described below. Any community unsure about the impact of a health emergency and their ability to respond should contact the Emergency Management Branch (EMB) early in the crisis for assessment of EMAT deployment. EMAT is deployed only after a community's own disaster plan is active and as a result, their systems are overwhelmed.
Conditions for EMAT Deployment
| All of the following elements must be present prior to EMAT deployment |
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Emergency is focused on a severe respiratory illness OR mass casualty incident OR requires medical care for victims of chemical/biological/radiological/nuclear (CBRN) emergency |
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Code Orange invoked by hospital |
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Community disaster plan implemented |
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Efforts to transfer patients out of hospital/region as appropriate have been, or will rapidly become, inadequate |
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Resolution of emergency is predicted to be greater than six hours plus EMAT response and travel time |
Criteria for Deployment of EMAT
The Criteria for Deployment for EMAT describes the conditions that need to be met for EMAT deployment to assist a hospital in an emergency and also the protocol a hospital would follow to request an EMAT deployment.
EMB recommends that this criteria be reviewed carefully and included in your hospital's Code Orange emergency plan.
| 1. Local hospital and regional acute care resources overwhelmed, or are predicted to be rapidly overwhelmed, by emergency defined by : |
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Human resources inadequate to meet emergency demand |
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greater than 10% over normal sick calls which compromises the ability to provide acute care services to emergency-related patients |
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OR |
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Chief Nursing Officer identifies that staffing levels are compromising patient/staff safety |
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OR |
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staff unavailable to meet needs of emergency-related patients |
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Physical resources overwhelmed |
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more than 100% of emergency capacity in use |
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OR |
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20% of inpatient beds dedicated to emergency |
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OR |
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specialty beds, as defined by the emergency, at full capacity for more than 18 hours |
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Other mitigating factors |
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Single hospital community |
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Length of emergency and impact on local health services |
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Community infrastructure unable to meet demands (i.e. CCAC, public health unit) |
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| 2. Local hospital and regional acute care resources physically incapacitated by emergency and unable to care for current and/or anticipated in-hospital acute care patients : |
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Volume of patients cannot be managed |
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Even after patients have been discharged as appropriate |
Protocol for Requesting EMAT
EMAT Deployment Decision Process
- Local hospital contacts the ministry's Emergency Management Branch (EMB)
(24-hour hotline: 1-866-212-2272).
- Discussion between EMB and EMAT regarding the need for primary reconnaissance team to provide on-site information.
- Primary team deployed if deemed necessary.
- EMB collects data.
- EMAT clinical and operational personnel placed on standby for possible deployment.
- Executive Emergency Management Committee (EEMC) considers information: EMAT medical director, EMAT program manager, CEO of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, local hospital and public health unit included in discussion.
- Decision made.
Timeline
- EEMC will meet within three three hours of request having been made. Data collection will occur prior to this meeting.
A copy of the Hospital Incident Report form is available for viewing below. Hospitals do not need to complete this form. This form will be completed by the Emergency Management Branch when a request for EMAT is received. The form is posted on this site for your information only.
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FOR INFORMATION ONLY
EMAT Incident Information Form
(TO BE COMPLETED BY EMB)
3 pages | 31 kb | PDF format
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To view PDF format files, you need to have Adobe Acrobat® Reader installed on your computer.
You can download this free software from the Adobe Web site. |
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