Puerto Rico Medical Emergencies Corps

The Puerto Rico Medical Emergencies Corps —Spanish: Cuerpo de Emergencias Médicas de Puerto Rico (CEMPR) or Emergencias Médicas Estatal because of the word Estatal on their ambulances— is the agency of the executive branch of the government of Puerto Rico that responds to all medical emergencies within the jurisdiction of Puerto Rico. The agency is assigned to the Department of Health of Puerto Rico, and is a component of the Puerto Rico Emergency Operations Center which also includes the Puerto Rico Police and the Puerto Rico Firefighters Corps. The Corps divides Puerto Rico in six regions for operational purposes with each region having its own dispatch. The Corps is directed by Heriberto Sauri.

History

After 1969, ambulance services were primary of the municipalities, which some of those didn't existed, because of the lack of ambulances and inaccessibility of the mountainous areas. On 1969, Governor Luis A. Ferre created the Puerto Rico Medical Emergencies Corps, under the direct control of the Puerto Rico Department of Health. All medical emergency calls were received through the PRPD's telephone line. Then, if an ambulance was needed, the dispatch of the PRPD sent an ambulance. In 1994, the Puerto Rico 9-1-1 center was created, and all emergencies were dispatch through Police, Fire and the CEMPR dispatch region of the emergency.

Operations

All administrative operations are conducted from its headquarters in the neighborhood Amelia in Guaynabo. From there, the whole tactic operation is coordinated from its 6 command centers located in Guaynabo, Ponce, Arecibo, Mayaguez, Caguas, Fajardo and Aguadilla, each strategically positioned covering the entire island. In the mid-1990s, the CEMPR began using the ambulances of the Municipal Offices of Emergency Management of San Juan, Guaynabo and Bayamon. It will be joined later by Ponce, Carolina, Cayey, Arroyo, Mayagüez, and others. Then, in 2008, the private ambulances were joined to the system, to overcome the overflow of cases that regularly "stuck" the system in some areas and some hours in particular.

Also, since the late 1990s an undetermined number of rescue volunteers groups proliferate in Puerto Rico, especially in the San Juan Metro Area, and by that is the municipalities of San Juan, Bayamon, Guaynabo, Trujillo Alto, Carolina, Loiza, Canovanas, Cataño, Toa Baja, Toa Alta, Dorado and Caguas. Its primary mission is to assist the already overburdened emergency medical system in the evenings cases are duplicated by accident, case reports and critical cases. In 2009, the CEMPR began using Puerto Rico Fire Corps stations to place their EMT posts to better served the community. Now the CEMPR algong with the Puerto Rico Fire Corps can serve the towns of the mountain where ambulance services tend to be late due to the distance of the emergency medical stations where they were previously located.

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