Proven strategies for developing an emergency response community

In any given year, the City of Boston is subject to a myriad of medical emergencies, many thousands of which affect the health and wellbeing of its citizens and visitors. Recently, for example, one of the city’s main pipes burst and flooded a hospital, there was a cement factory explosion over a school bus yard, a long-term care facility exposed over 60 residents to carbon monoxide poisoning, and two commuter ferry boats collided. The City prepares for such incidents, as well as disasters of a much greater scale. Interagency and inter-jurisdictional planning committees, training and exercises, and the utilisation of special events as planned disasters, all serve to enhance collaboration, coordination and preparedness across the medical and first-response community. In Metro Boston, the municipal and private public health and first-response agencies have taken comprehensive measures to institutionalise collaboration and partnerships. Written from the perspective of the Boston Emergency Medical Services, the city’s municipal 911 ambulance service, this paper describes the steps taken to build a more prepared community.