Tactical emergency medical services
Tactical Emergency medical services (TEMS) is out-of-hospital care given in hostile situations by specially trained practitioners.
TMPs are specially trained and authorized to perform live-saving medical procedures in austere and often times unconventional environments.
TMPs are also expected to be competent in weapons safety and marksmanship, small unit tactics, waterborne operations, urban search and rescue, and HAZMAT.
[1] TMPs also serve to train their respective teams in complex medical procedures that may be performed in their absence.
Following the widely publicized active shooter situations such as the Columbine High School massacre, Virginia Tech shooting, and others, major changes took place in law enforcement protocol regarding emergency medical support in the field.
An additional option, which most closely resembles tactical EMS, is utilizing a person previously trained as a medical practitioner to provide medical support for law enforcement by either integrating them into the team itself or allowing them to treat casualties in a warm zone (a location that is deemed to be a mild risk for sustaining injuries).
[4] Presently, many law enforcement agencies across the nation have recognized the benefit of training a medical professional as a tactical officer and utilizing them in situations where there is a higher risk of sustaining casualties.
Depending on the issue at hand, they have to be equipped to handle the widest range of medical emergencies while keeping weight at a minimum.
Additionally, the TMP is expected to train with their team in weapons safety and marksmanship, workouts, and tactics exercises.
It is traditional for an emergency physician to serve as the TMP for a law enforcement/military unit, though there have historically been other specialties which have filled the role such as family medicine practitioners and surgeons.
If the physician is the sole TMP for the team, then it is their duty to provide life-saving emergency medical care to wounded law enforcement/military, civilians, or perpetrators.
These procedures include: tourniquet application, chest tube insertion, rapid sequence intubation, and needle decompressions.
[8] Many law enforcement agencies, even those that exist in relatively smaller cities, have tactically-trained medics to support their SWAT teams.
