• Costa Rica’s Emergency Medical Response Team is the first in the Americas to achieve the EMT recognition by the World Health Organization.

Costa Rica’s emergency response team (EMT) is now recognized among the world’s emergency medical teams that can be deployed quickly when requested by countries affected by disasters or emergencies, said the WHO last week.

 

 

Meanwhile, director of the Pan American Health Organization’s health emergencies program, Ciro Ugarte, highlighted the country’s political commitment to achieve this verification and recalled that Costa Rica hosted the consultative meeting that developed the region’s policy on humanitarian health assistance in 1986 which included minimum standards  for emergency field hospitals.

At the recognition ceremony, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan noted that Costa Rica has demonstrated “a satisfactory practical commitment to the principles guiding patient care, as well as a high level of adherence and ability to implement the basic and technical standards for a Type 1 EMT.”

This means the country has the logistical and the technical capacity to provide emergency ambulatory care to at least 100 people a day, in addition to stabilizing patients who require transfer to higher level facilities. The emergency team has the ability to be self-sufficient for at least two weeks, which is the minimum time they are expected to be mobilized in the event they are called to aid in an international disaster.

“Ensuring that international medical teams can deliver clinical care within the minimum standards of quality and can be deployed in a short amount of time is essential to help save lives and avoid injuries, as well as protect the health of populations affected by an emergency,” said Luis De la Fuente, PAHO regional advisor, who participated in the verification mission to Costa Rica in February of this year.

EMTs are teams made up of health professionals (medical and nursing staff, physiotherapists, paramedics, etc.) who provide direct clinical care to populations affected by emergencies and disasters, and support for local health systems in such situations. The emergency medical teams work under global WHO emergency guidelines.

So far, EMT teams from Russia, China, Japan, Australia, Israel and the UK have been classified. Costa Rica is the first country in the region to join the global EMT roster. Several other countries in the Americas are working hard to classify their own EMTs.

The Costa Rican Social Security Agency’s (CCSS) emergency team was deployed during the national response to Hurricane Otto last November and its staff has extensive experience in emergency deployment, said the WHO.