Oklahoma Medical Reserve Corps

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, thousands of medical and health care professionals wanted to volunteer. But there was no coordinated system to verify credentials, match skills to needs, and get the right people to the right place at the right time.

Soon after, the anthrax attacks on the East Coast underscored the need for a way to identify and organize trained professionals for mass immunization and medication distribution.

In response, the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) was created in 2002 under the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General and the White House’s USA Freedom Corps. Its goal: Build a system to recruit, train, and organize medical, public health, and community volunteers to support existing emergency response teams.

Oklahoma became an early leader in this effort. In fall 2002, the City of Tulsa received the first MRC grant in the state directly from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. By the following year, three more Oklahoma groups joined the program — the City of Oklahoma City, the City of Lawton, and the Oklahoma Nurses Association.

At first, these four local MRC units operated under the Oklahoma State Citizen Corps Program. In 2004, funding from the Emergency System for Advanced Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals (ESAR-VHP) helped launch the first OKMRC website and volunteer database. Soon after, the four original units and the Oklahoma ESAR-VHP program combined to form today’s OKMRC — a single, statewide volunteer program.

To keep the program growing and ensure consistency across the state, oversight of the OKMRC was transferred from the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management to the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) in November 2005. This move allowed Oklahoma to build a unified, sustainable public health and medical volunteer network that continues to serve communities today.

OKMRC is a statewide network made up of specialty teams and county-based units covering the entire state of Oklahoma. Unit coordinators work closely with the OKMRC program office to ensure consistency, maintain operations, and build strong support networks across the state.

OKMRC is our state’s only medical and public health volunteer program. Directed by the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) and supported by the Oklahoma City-County Health Department and Tulsa Health Department the OKMRC maintains an Emergency System for Advanced Registration for Volunteer Health Professionals (ESAR-VHP) compliant electronic registry to track volunteers.

OKMRC has two primary goals:

• Emergency Response Support: Create teams of volunteer medical, public health, and community members who can assist during emergencies and disasters.
• Education & Prevention: Improve public health in neighborhoods and communities through outreach, training, and preparedness efforts.

While OKMRC provides skilled volunteers, it does not typically deploy its own medical equipment, supplies, or medications. Organizations requesting assistance are responsible for providing the necessary supplies for volunteers to safely and effectively do their work.

The vision of OKMRC is to enhance emergency preparedness and response capabilities by supplementing existing response infrastructures in local communities across the state of Oklahoma.

The mission of OKMRC is to identify, organize, train and sustain a cadre of medical, public health, and community volunteers who will contribute their skills and expertise to emergency preparedness, response, and recovery efforts during times of community need and in ongoing public health efforts.

Civil Liability Coverage
Volunteer Medical Professional Services Act

O.S. § 76-32, part G

“Any person participating in a Medical Reserve Corps and assisting with emergency management, emergency operations, or hazard mitigation in response to any emergency, man-made disaster, or natural disaster, or participating in public health initiatives endorsed by a city, county, or state health department in the State of Oklahoma, shall not be liable for civil damages on the basis of any act or omission, if:

1. The person was acting in good faith and within the scope of the official duties and functions of the Medical Reserve Corps; and

2. The acts or omissions were not caused from gross, willful, or wanton acts of negligence.”

The Oklahoma Medical Reserve Corps is a volunteer organization. Volunteers are not covered under workers’ compensation benefits or employee health insurance benefits. Volunteers are not provided insurance that could otherwise be expected to compensate or reimburse them for injuries or medical-related expenses that may occur as a result of their services. This includes, but is not limited to, injuries that might occur in a workplace, field of deployment or in motor vehicle accidents while performing volunteer services or duties.

Volunteers are not protected by Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation laws and are advised of this policy during the OKMRC Orientation. Agencies utilizing OKMRC volunteers should seek independent policies for coverage and should do so prior to deployment.

OKMRC will collect no personal information about you when you visit our website unless you choose to provide that information to us.

If you do nothing during your visit but browse through the site, read pages, or download information, we will automatically gather and store certain information about your visit. However, that information will not identify you personally. Information collected included: the Internet domain and your IP address (a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Internet); the type of browser and operating system used to access our site; the date and time you access our site; and the pages you visit. We use this information to help make our site more useful to visitors, to track the number of visitors to our site, and to learn about the types of technology our visitors use. We do not track or record information about individuals.

If you choose to become a volunteer, during the registration process, we will collect personal and professional information which will be stored in a secure database. Information you provide will be used to help us determine what area of OKMRC you will be assigned to and what level of services you can provide. It will also be used for further communication with you. The information you provide is transferred to a secure area of OKMRC site via Secure Socket Layer protection, which is accepted as an Internet Standard. The information you provide is not given to any private organizations or private persons nor does this site collect or use information for commercial marketing. In the event the Oklahoma MRC is deployed, we will use this information to assist us in deploying our teams to disaster areas.

After the registration information has been collected, additional information will be collected from time to time and used to provide training recommendations and opportunities, as well as other information tailored to fit your situation.

The secure administrative area of our site will be used to process training and other information you provide. This information will not be made available to any commercial marketing or other purpose other than for use within the OKMRC.

If for one reason or another, you decide you no longer wish to be a part of OKMRC, you can request to have you information made inactive in our data. You may OKMRC at (405) 426-8600. Your name will be removed from the active files. A record of your participation will remain in the archive of the OKMRC database. This information will only be used within OKMRC.

Information and images used on this site are for personal use and may not be reproduced without permission.