The Disaster Medical Support Units (DMSUs) represent a significant milestone in improving regional preparedness and response capabilities to significant multi-casualty incidents that occur in the Hampton Roads region. There are 11 DMSUs in the Hampton Roads Region. The following Hampton Roads jurisdictions and organizations have accepted the DMSUs on behalf of the jurisdiction and agreed to make them available to support the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Medical Response System (HRMMRS):

• Chesapeake
• Hampton
• Isle of Wight County
• James City County
• Newport News
• Norfolk
• Portsmouth
• Suffolk
• Virginia Beach (2 DMSUs)
• York County

In accepting the DMSU, these jurisdictions have agreed to use the equipment to augment their emergency medical response resources during a mass casualty, disaster or terrorism event as part of the HRMMRS and (when available) to honor mutual aid re-quests from other Hampton Roads jurisdictions and organizations for such equipment during mass casualty events that exceed the resources of the requesting party.

Each DMSU will support up to 250 patients depending on the nature of the injuries.  Each DMSU is designed and equipped to support five functional elements of a disaster medical response: Incident Command Support, Medical Equipment Cache, Hazardous Materials Response Support, First Responder Rehabilitation Support and Mass Fatality Support. Each DMSU uses the same load plan and is equipped the same.

View the DMSU Orientation video and/or download the Disaster Medical Support Unit brochure by clicking on the document title shown next to  "Download Attachments", shown below. The DMSU Inventory List is also available for download.

Since it's inception in 1999, the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Response System (HRMMRS),  has used a federal, state, and private grants in along with appropriated funds to purchase and maintain a variety of disaster response equipment for the Hampton Roads region. The HRMMRS currently provides financial and logistic support to maintain the 11 Disaster Medical Support Units (DMSUs), 10 Mass Casualty Evacuation and Transportaion Units (MCETUs), 13 Shelter Support Units (SSUs) and the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Medical Strike Team (HRMMST) communications and consumable medical supplies and materials cache. The HRMMRS is committed to maintaining this equipment in an operationally ready status. The HRMMRS will continue to seek grants to help us maintin this equipment and the public safety response capabilities that it provides to the Hampton Roads region.

To learn more about disaster response equipment supported by the HRMMRS please views the following pages:

• Disaster Medical Support Units
• Mass Casualty Evacuation & Transportation Units
• Shelter Support Units

Please contact the HRMMRS Program Office at (757) 963-0632 for more information.