Misti Crane
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A program that prepares medical responders for worst-case scenarios is in jeopardy as Congress considers ways to cut the federal debt.
Columbus is home to one of 124 Metropolitan Medical Response Systems in the nation, and those in charge of operating the 15-year-old program here say that losing federal dollars could be devastating in the event of catastrophe.
The money has made Columbus and its surrounding communities much better-prepared, paying for such things as mobile units to care for the sick or injured and caches of supplies and medication for EMS, public-health workers and others who would be on the front lines, said Caitlin Spontelli, Columbus metropolitan medical response coordinator.
It also pays for large-scale drills to prepare medical responders, and for the maintenance and organization of a medical reserve corps — a team of volunteers who helped staff clinics during the H1N1 mass vaccination.
Current recommendations call for the response systems’ funding — which has been between $30 million and $40 million over the past couple of years — to be rolled into a larger pool of money for homeland-security grants, said Kristen Greene, who works for Capitol Strategy Group and is a spokeswoman for the systems throughout the nation.
Without a separate fund for the programs, there’s widespread fear the programs will disappear, she said. Congress created them in response to the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.
Columbus’ most recent grant was for $317,419. Less than half the money pays for personnel. There are five other response systems stationed in Ohio’s larger cities.
Greene said she hasn’t heard from a single member of Congress who has a problem with the response systems, only those who are looking to make cuts and have general concerns about how money allocated to the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been managed.
Spontelli said she fears that medical first responders will be overlooked if Congress doesn’t reinstate the separate funding for her program.
Lauren Kulik, a spokeswoman for Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said that the senator shares those concerns.
“When you see these kind of really drastic cuts, you see really critical services getting cut,” Kulik said.
In a written statement, Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Genoa Township, said that any speculation that the funding will be lost is premature.
“There is money included in both the House and Senate homeland-security appropriations bills that would allow for the activities funded through MMRS to continue at the discretion of the secretary of homeland security, who will determine how the money is best spent,” he said.
Metropolitan Medical Response Systems isn’t the only program that focuses on preparing for emergencies — the Franklin County Emergency Management and Homeland Security agency has almost $1.7 million for next year, much of which goes to local jurisdictions, said spokesman Mark Anthony.
But the program is the only one dedicated exclusively to medical response.
“It’s definitely money that would be missed,” Anthony said.
Loss of the money would cause a significant gap in the ability of emergency crews and public health workers to respond, said Mike McNutt, spokesman for Columbus Public Health’s Office of Emergency Preparedness.
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