Medical Crisis Action Team

About the Program

Category: Risk and Emergency Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

The Medical Crisis Action Team (MEDCAT) of the Suffolk County Police Department was created in 2008. This team, which operates within the police department command structure, consists of 4 volunteer Critical Incident Police Surgeons, and 15 Suffolk County police officers. The Suffolk County Police Department MEDCAT program is a unique concept in which tactically trained police officers receive intensive medical training in Advanced Life Support and New York State certification as either Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedic or Emergency Medical Technician Critical Care. Conversely, the surgeons, all with extensive training and experience in trauma, receive training in tactical deployment and operations, weapons of mass destruction, incident management, and ALS operations and protocols of Suffolk County Emergency Medical Services. The police officers assigned to the MEDCAT enhance the department’s ability to provide emergency medical care for Suffolk County residents on a day-to-day basis. Additionally, the entire MEDCAT, police officers, and surgeons can be rapidly mobilized in a mass casualty incident or when emergency medical care is required in a large scale police response. The MEDCAT benefits not only members of the Suffolk County Police Department, but also personnel from other first responding agencies, and ultimately members of the public.