Office of EMS Preparedness and Operations

EMS Preparedness and Operations (EMSPO) provides leadership and support to the statewide EMS system by cultivating 16 strong relationships with system stakeholders, ensuring that the system is effectively prepared and responding to the prehospital medical needs of the residents and visitors of Maryland. EMSPO includes EMRC/SYSCOM, Field Operations, Regional Coordination, the Critical Care Coordination Center (C4), and Critical Incident Stress Management.

Emergency Medical System Situational Awareness and Operations
The EMS Preparedness and Operations (EMSPO) department plays a vital role in Maryland’s emergency management framework. They provide 24/7 staffing and collaborate with both inter- 56 nal and external departments and agencies to respond to incidents. Their responsibilities include data collection and system integration to support and enhance EMS operations across the state. The EMS Preparedness and Operations department coordinates, administers and maintains the following:

The MIEMSS segment of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response/Health and Human Services (ASPR/HHS) Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) grant and funding.
The Maryland Emergency Medical Resource Alerting Database (MEMRAD), which connects hospitals, EMS, Public Health, and other partners, providing a more unified operational view of incidents.
The eMEDS® interface to the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE) system, which combines EMS, hospital, primary care, Pharmacy, and other data sources data with other healthcare data for improved epidemic detection.
Preparedness for the National Disaster Medical System, high-consequence infectious diseases (HCID), critical incident stress management, Chemical Emergency Preparedness (CHEMPACK) program, and healthcare facility evacuation exercises.
The MIEMSS Incident Management Team, and support to the State Incident Management Team. In addition, EMSPO provides situational awareness and facilitates state-wide support in the following ways,
Ongoing situational awareness through communication with stakeholders and management of hospital intelligence and bed availability data.
Maintained ongoing situational awareness of the EMS and Healthcare systems in collaboration and communication with federal, state, local, and other stakeholders.
Provide EMRC reports for mass casualty events, healthcare facility fires, and other incidents where state support or other resources is required.
Coordinated agency Continuity of Operation (COOP) planning.

Regional Coordination
MIEMSS Regional Offices are distributed across the state and staffed by regional coordinators and administrative personnel. Each office monitors the operation of its assigned region within the statewide EMS system. Regional coordinators serve as technical advisors to EMS jurisdictions, hospitals, and other part¬ners, assisting with EMS system coordination and development. They collaborate with jurisdictional EMS programs to ensure that efficient and effective emergency care is always available. Additionally, regional staff support local programs, such as Mobile Integrated Health. Regional coordination works closely with EMS and partner agencies to facilitate conferences, exercises and training sessions.

Regional Councils
Regional councils help implement quality assurance and improvement measures by reviewing performance data and suggest targeted trainings to address identified gaps. Additionally, the regional councils play a key role in disseminating protocol updates and organizing training sessions for new protocols (i.e., High-Performance CPR and Pediatric High-Performance CPR), ensuring EMS personnel remain informed and prepared to deliver high-quality care.

Jurisdictional EMS Operations Programs
Maryland’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system is built on a strong foundation of local expertise, statewide coordination, and a shared commitment to protecting the health and safety of every community. Emergency Medical Services pre-hospital care is provided by twenty-eight (28) Jurisdictional EMS Operational Programs (JEMSOPs), which deliver 9-1-1 EMS response across the State of Maryland. MIEMSS coordinates the Jurisdictional Advisory Committee (JAC) as a forum to disseminate information on new policies and protocols. The JAC bi-monthly meetings foster collaboration among jurisdictions and promote the development of best practices. Each year, MIEMSS conducts an annual resource survey in partnership with these JEMSOPs. This survey provides a comprehensive snapshot of the EMS resources available statewide, including the number and types of EMS units staffed and deployed to respond to emergency calls. The data gathered offers insight into both current capacity and emerging needs, ensuring that Maryland’s EMS system remains prepared, resilient, and responsive.

Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM)
Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) offers crisis support services to EMS clinicians, firefighters, law enforcement officers, dispatchers, and other emergency services personnel involved in stressful emergency incidents. It is designed to help accelerate recovery of those individuals exhibiting symptoms of severe stress reaction. CISM offers education, defusings, and debriefings conducted by psychosocial and EMS professionals well-trained in critical incident stress management. Volunteer regional coordinators act as points of contact for local 9-1-1 centers and EMRC/SYSCOM. MIEMSS works closely with local CISM/peer-support teams and the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation to improve capabilities throughout the state. Legislation signed into law in 2022 provided confidentiality protection for peer-support team activities, provisions, and required the Behavioral Health Administration (BHA) to study and provide a report on specified items for peer support teams. MIEMSS and members of local CISM and peer-support teams consulted and supported BHA’s work on the required study. Additionally, MIEMSS sponsored a two-day International Association of Fire Fighters peer-support course at the annual EMS Care Conference in Ocean City.

CHEMPACK
EMS Preparedness and Operations (EMSPO), in collaboration with the Office of the State EMS Medical Director, oversees the CHEMPACK program for first responders in Maryland. This program, developed by the CDC’s Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), is now managed in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and the Maryland Department of Health Office of Preparedness and Response. CHEMPACK provides EMS clinicians with rapid access to critical antidotes for nerve agent attacks and large-scale organophosphate poisonings. Strategically stored antidotes at secure locations across Maryland are available for quick access when needed. The CHEMPACK inventory is carefully monitored.

Active Assailant Interdisciplinary Work Group (AAIWG)
The Maryland Active Assailant Interdisciplinary Work Group (AAIWG) identifies, updates, and shares best practices and current activities to help Maryland prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from active assailant incidents. The AAIWG’s multidisciplinary membership includes subject matter experts from across the State. MIEMSS strategically partners with the AAIWG and has co-chaired theAAIWG committee since its inception in 2013. The AAIWG brings a multidisciplinary approach to prevention, intervention, response to, and recovery from active assailant incidents and related public safety and emergency management planning.

Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Program
Maryland regulation requires that Public high schools, middle schools, county or municipality-owned or operated swimming pools, grocery stores and restaurants meeting certain conditions, and some public/semi-public pools and health clubs depending on local ordinances are required to have publicly accessible AEDs. The voluntary Maryland Public Access Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Program permits facilities that do not provide health care but meet certain requirements to have an AED onsite for bystander use in the event of a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) until EMS arrives. This year, the new Maryland AED registry application and online information was created to register track use of AEDs across Maryland. The Maryland AED registry (www.marylandaedregistry.org), received and approved 399 public access AED applications this fiscal year. There are 8,545 locations in the state have AEDs, a total of 16,963 AEDs, and there have been 285 (23.1%) successful AED outcomes out of 1,232 reported incidents. Success is measured by the patient having a return of pulse at EMS arrival, during EMS arrival, or during EMS transport. Of the overall arrests, 667 were witnessed, and 209 of those witnessed arrests regained a pulse at the time of EMS arrival. The AED program resulted in a 31.3% save rate for cardiac arrests when witnessed by a bystander.

Updated: 10-1-25

EMS Preparedness and Operations

Emergency Operations Mission:

To provide support in the area of planning and coordination for health and medical preparedness for catastrophic events, as well as to provide communications equipment and maintenance and to provide communications services to assist in the quality of care provided patients in Maryland's EMS System.

The emergency operations program has been established to support our federal, state, local, and private partners in areas of health and medical preparedness. Some of the programs activities over the past fiscal year included:

Staffed and coordinated the Governor’s Emergency Management Advisory Council, Health and Medical Committee, which is responsible for the planning and coordination of all health and medical preparedness activities in Maryland.
Managed the Facility Resource Emergency Database (FRED), which continues to be used regularly to alert emergency medical services, hospitals, and public health agencies and allows for the effective use of available resources during emergency events and exercises.
During preparation for potential disasters and actual emergency occurrences, a MIEMSS Field Operations Support Team has provided support to federal, state, and local agencies, as well as hospitals, for the coordination of resources. The team has participated in 17 events since January 2004 that required coordination efforts.
MIEMSS continues to partner with the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) in participating in the Strategic National StockpileProgram. In addition, the partners are working to implement the "Chempack" program, which strategically pre-places federally owned caches of nerve antidote agents in the state.
Coordinated the distribution of bio-terrorism cooperative agreement funding provided by DHMH to local emergency medical services operations to enhance their ability to respond and provide care.
Provided representation on the Governor’s Senior Homeland Security Group and when appropriate, provided risk-based information to EMS organizations and hospitals.