The Growing Importance of Disaster Medical Response

This paper addresses the importance of disaster medical response from a public administration perspective and highlights the importance of cooperation among community, governmental and private organizations. Research in disaster medical response will provide a framework for community leaders, elected officials and healthcare providers to collect and analyze data to support evidence-based decision making in response to natural disasters or terrorist activities. Such decisions increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the disaster response system thereby safeguarding the population and the community infrastructure. This study found that disaster medical response capabilities are greater in urban communities, while rural communities have less disaster medical response capabilities. This would support the premise that disaster medical response resources have been allocated in a manner to provide the greatest good to the greatest population.