Is Your Staff Prepared to Manage a Medical Emergency?

In 2012 a group of educational professionals developed the Iowa School Safety Guide. This document is available on the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management website. The guide references a medical emergency response team (MERT). However, the original manual did not provide guidance as to how this team should be developed.

The purpose of a MERT team is to provide a coordinated response in the event of a medical emergency for students, staff and visitors. Last spring MERT guidelines were developed to supplement the Iowa School Safety Guide. It provides instructions for districts to develop a MERT team, an emergency response bag supply list, as well as suggestions for team selection and training.