Marking Milestones in Preparedness
According to Dictionary.com, the definition of milestone is “a significant event or stage in the life, progress, development, or the like of a person, nation, etc.” This Director’s column is devoted to acknowledging two major milestones related to emergency preparedness: one at the national level and one in our own backyard.
This past September, the Office of the Surgeon General announced approval of the 1000th Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) to register for official designation. With MRCs in all 50 states and most territories, this national response network now boasts over 205,000 members serving jurisdictions covering over 91% of the U.S. population and more than 73% of the U.S. land area.
Here at home, our MRC is acknowledging a milestone of our own. 2014 marks the completion of our 10th year of operation. At the national level, units are numbered based on order of official designation. The University of Minnesota Medical Reserve Corps received our federal designation in April 2004. We are “Unit #4”. In those early days, the University of Minnesota joined the Medical Reserve Corps program with the belief that we had something important to offer – the largest collection of health faculty, staff, and students in Minnesota – and a commitment to serving both our campus and the broader community when needed. As founder of the U of M MRC, I honestly was unsure in 2004 if this idea would take flight. What we have accomplished together – across health disciplines – and in so many different ways is incredible!
Check out the MRC portion of this site for more information about past deployment and preparedness activities. My sincere thanks to all of our members and AHC Office of Emergency Response staff who make the University of Minnesota Medical Reserve Corps the important resource that it is. Here’s to the next 10 years!