Heroes aren’t born, they volunteer!
The need for trained supplemental healthcare personnel to assist with emergency operations was highlighted after the terrorist attacks of 2001 and hurricanes of 2005. Many medical and public health professionals sought to support emergency relief efforts, but there was no organized approach to channel their willingness to help.
The Ohio Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) program provides the structure necessary to deploy healthcare personnel and non-medical personnel in response to an emergency, as it identifies specific, trained, and credentialed individuals available and ready to respond to emergencies, thus saving valuable time.
Knox County's Medical Reserve Corps Mission
The Knox County Medical Reserve Corps is committed to establishing teams of volunteers consisting of medical and non-medical professionals, along with community members, to contribute their capabilities and expertise during times of disaster, public health emergencies as well as throughout the year to promote community health initiatives.
The Knox County MRC is a group of passionate volunteers, some with and some without medical backgrounds interested in supporting and improving the health of their community. Our MRC is a part of a nationwide initiative of over 968 units throughout the country. Our participation is essential in treatment of victims of a large scale disaster or epidemic, administration of vaccines during a mass vaccination, distribution of medicine during a chemical or biological attack, assisting in community clinics, supporting other response agencies, or lending a hand with community events.
Frequently Asked Questions
WHO IS ELIGIBLE?
Any interested resident of Knox County 18 years or older, are encouraged to join. This includes both medical and non-medical professionals and community members. If you hold a medical license, that license will be verified to determine your ability to perform certain tasks during a disaster.
WHAT IS REQUIRED?
There is currently no required time commitment. All volunteers must complete three approved training courses. Trainings are offered on-line and during local MRC meetings. In order to have liability coverage all volunteers must complete one approved training course every 3 years. These courses can include professional training, emergency medicine, and emergency preparedness.
WHY SHOULD I JOIN?
The satisfaction of giving back to your community. The desire to make a difference when you are needed most. Join because of that feeling you had when you watched a disaster on TV and you wanted to do something. We strive to have capable, prepared, and knowledgeable volunteers to ensure that the citizens of Knox County remain as healthy as possible.
WHY DO I NEED TO JOIN THE MRC? CAN’T I JUST SHOW UP?
Volunteers arriving at the incident site, without being trained, without known credentials or without being affiliated with an organization, often hurt instead of help recovery efforts despite their best intentions. Through hard lessons learned, we now know counties experiencing a disaster situation need pre-credentialed, screened and trained medical professionals. The MRC meets these needs by providing an organized, rapid response of volunteers in a disaster. Waiting to be deployed by the MRC allows us to communicate important messages to better prepare each volunteer for service, and allows us to track all volunteers at the scene so that the response can be safe for everyone.
Liability Protection
Ohio Revised Code Section 121.404 (B) provides liability protection to registered Ohio Medical Reserve Corps volunteers during local, state or federally declared emergencies, disasters, drills, exercises and other training exercises, and exempts a registered volunteer’s personal information in the Ohio MRC Database from public disclosure. This protection does not include the provision of any court fees, nor does it cover workman’s compensation. All MRC volunteers must be properly registered on the OhioResponds website to be covered by this liability protection.
How to Join the MRC
To Sign Up
- Please go to https://www.ohioresponds.odh.ohio.gov/ and click on register now button at the side of the page.
- This will take you to a page that will allow you to select Knox County and the Knox County Medical Reserve Corps. Click the next button.
- The next page will give you instructions on choosing a username and password. You will be selecting Knox County MRC. Continue completing all required data fields and questions.
- Once you fill out all required fields to initially register, you will receive a confirmation email directly from the System Services with the Ohio Responds Registry confirming you have completed the basic data to become registered.
- The Knox County MRC Unit Coordinator will finalize your registration and you will receive an email from Ohio Responds indicating you have an internal message to be read on the Ohio Responds Registry. Please click the link to log in to check your message from the Knox County MRC Unit Coordinator. The message will be located in the section titled RECENT MESSAGES.
- As an approved member of the Knox County MRC you will be added to the e-mail distribution. E-mails and mailings are sent to inform volunteers of meeting dates, training opportunities and activities.
- Please feel free to contact the Knox County MRC Unit Coordinator with any questions or concerns. Assistance can be provided for on-line registration.
Training
There are three required trainings for a Knox County MRC volunteer. Volunteers must be prepared for emergencies, and one very important way to do this is to offer training on how to manage emergencies. Volunteers must complete MRC 101 orientation training and two emergency management trainings. The links for the emergency management trainings are listed below. The MRC 101 training is provided locally by the Knox County MRC Unit Coordinator. Every volunteer must complete one training every three years in order to be covered by state liability and remain an active MRC volunteer. You can take these courses over again or you can take professional development courses, emergency medicine courses, or emergency preparedness courses. If you do not have the ability to take a course online please contact the MRC Unit Coordinator and other arrangements can be made.