Three Rivers Medical Reserve Corps

The Medical Reserve Corps is a national network of locally led units of medical professionals and support volunteers. The Three Rivers Medical Reserve Corps began in 2008 and currently serves approximately 140,000 people in Virginia's Three Rivers Health District.

Each MRC unit is a local program built on the concept that communities can improve their overall health and preparedness by organizing volunteer resources from within. The purpose of MRC units is to recruit health care professionals and volunteers in supporting roles; Create a framework to match volunteers’ skills to address community needs; Train volunteers to respond effectively to local emergencies; And to provide reserve capacity to respond to local, state, and national public health needs.

Volunteers support the health district in both emergency and non-emergency situations. The MRC collaborates with local hospitals, local county governments, the American Red Cross, and community emergency response teams (CERT) to increase capacity in emergencies. The MRC also participates in education, training, and exercises.

MRC units throughout the state actively improve and protect their community’s public health by supporting:

• Health education and preventative health screenings
• Efforts to provide medical services to at-risk populations
• Communicable disease outbreak response
• Volunteer emergency preparedness training and exercises
• Local, state, and national response to terrorism attacks and disasters
• Staffing support for medical services, first aid stations, emergency shelters, and mental health outreach
• Dispensing sites for medications and vaccinations
• Disease investigations and environmental health efforts for food and human safety