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Tactical Emergency Medical Support (TEMS) at 20 Years by Richard Carmona

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Tactical Emergency Medical Support (TEMS) at 20 Years by Richard Carmona department | TEMS Tactical Emergency Medical Support (TEMS) at 20 Years By Richard Carmona s an early member of the NTOA, I had A the good fortune to be befriended and mentored by John Kolman, the founder of the National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA) and by all measures, the vision- ary leader who has contributed more to the evolution of law enforcement special operations than anyone in our history. For it was his vision to unite hundreds of dis- parate SWAT teams nationally through an organization, the NTOA, and a publication, The Tactical Edge, where we could learn from each other and move the profession forward collectively. It was during this time in the mid-1980s that I had the oppor- tunity to meet, teach with and befriend many Vice Admiral, U.S. Surgeon General (ret.) and Deputy Sheriff Richard Carmona with NTOA Founder, Captain John Kolman (ret.) operators nationally and then globally. One of them was the late reserve Commander (then-Lieutenant) David Rasumoff, M.D. of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s (LASD) It was quite remarkable that the great majority of teams SEB, ESD. David and I recognized early on nationally had no formal internal or external medical support. that our respective teams were unique in having dual-trained operator medics much In fact, most teams would just call 9-1-1 as needed or occa- like the military special operations teams. sionally request pre-staged EMS units. These operator medics were not only there to take care of injuries and illness but also, and most importantly, to keep the teams healthy and operationally ready. They also assisted commanders in many areas, With the advent of the NTOA, its teams nationally had no formal internal such as selection of appropriate safety training courses, The Tactical Edge or external medical support. In fact, most equipment, gathering mission-specific publication and a few surveys1, David and I teams would just call 9-1-1 as needed or medical intelligence, coordinating all were able to begin to characterize the status occasionally request pre-staged EMS units. medical support and monitoring the of medical support for tactical teams. It was Considering the high-risk missions the team’s day-to-day health. quite remarkable that the great majority of teams were engaging in, Dave and I 60 The Tactical Edge | Spring 2011 TEMS, continued University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) In 1990, David and I began writing a and advised that they were preparing to regular column called “Inside the Perim- launch a one-week law enforcement tactical eter,” in The Tactical Edge.3 The column With the national and in- medicine course called Counter Narcot- continues today, and through many authors ics Tactical Operations Medical Support has contributed significantly to uniting the ternational collaboration of (CONTOMS). We were invited to join the tactical emergency medical community and many individuals and orga- newly-assembling faculty. establishing general standards. It was in one We joined the USUHS CONTOMS of our early articles that Dave and I coined nizations, TEMS has grown faculty and donated our NTOA two-day the term “TEMS,” the acronym for Tactical from an aspirational vision tactical medicine curriculum and slides to Emergency Medical Support.4 to an ever-evolving, widely the CONTOMS course. Coincidentally, In the early and mid-1990s many depart- the commander at USUHS overseeing the ments and organizations began to offer their accepted and essential com- CONTOMS course was then-Colonel Craig own tactical medicine courses. It rapidly be- ponent of police special Llewelyn, a legendary Army Special Forces came apparent that there were significant dif- commander whom I knew from my time in operations. ferences in quality among the many course Army Special Forces. Craig was one of the offerings nationally and that some sort of original contributors to the Army Special uniform standards would be desirable. Forces medical specialist curriculum in the In the mid-1990s, the International 1960s. Since we were loosely modeling our TEMS Association (ITEMS) was created law enforcement tactical medicine model with the intent of providing a specific voice on the military operator medic paradigm, believed that it was inconceivable not to and meeting place for TEMS. This orga- we were fortunate to have a leader in Craig have some type of ongoing formal relation- nization attempted to achieve a national who fully understood and supported the ship with EMS and health professionals. consensus on a TEMS curriculum as well concepts of tactical medicine. David and Over the period of a year, our friendship as provide recognition to TEMS provid- I continued to offer the two-day NTOA and professional relationship grew. In 1988 ers nationally who had excelled in any of tactical medicine course around the U.S. we approached John Kolman and pitched several categories. Unfortunately, for several while CONTOMS offered a five-day cur- the idea of an NTOA-sponsored curricu- reasons, ITEMS lasted for a few years and riculum. Dave and I taught in both courses. lum and training in tactical medicine. These courses complemented each other then stopped operations. John immediately embraced the concept and for many years were very well attended The 1990s also gave rise to other organi- and became our biggest proponent. nationally. Both courses gradually added zations like Heckler and Koch, who provid- The NTOA and LASD SEB hosted the law enforcement, EMS, fire and medical ed their own version of a TEMS course; the first national course on tactical medicine faculty from around the United States as the International School of Tactical Medicine in 1989 in Los Angeles. David and I invited demand grew. in Palm Beach, CA; and university medical military and law enforcement operator medics from around the country. Our goal was to begin a dialogue with them on criti- cal health and safety issues we all faced. From that meeting came numerous rec- TEMS is another excellent example of the translation of ommendations that guided our thoughts about a curriculum for what was eventually elements of military medicine to a community environment. to become Tactical Emergency Medical Pre-hospital care, trauma centers, EMS systems and now Support (TEMS). TEMS have evolved from the battlefield to our law enforce- During the following year we planned our next tactical medical course, which was ment special operations teams in order to maximize opera- held in Tucson, Arizona in 1990 and spon- tional readiness and care for the injured in sometimes sored by the Pima County Sheriff’s Depart- ment and the NTOA. This course was also austere environments. very well attended and successful.2 At the Tucson course, Dave and I were approached by representatives of the Uniformed Services 62 The Tactical Edge | Spring 2011 TEMS, continued Most recently, the Center for Opera- SWAT team operator, medic, training officer and tional Medicine at the Medical College of team leader. He is also a combat-decorated Georgia, the NTOA and North American former United States Army Special Forces medic and weapons specialist, the 17th Surgeon TEMS exists and thrives Rescue collaborated to define the practice of TEMS via a competency-based curriculum General of the United States and emeritus TEMS chairman for the NTOA. today because of the passion that is referred to as the “STORM” course and initial commitment of (Specialized Tactics for Operational Rescue and Medicine). The refinement, improve- Endnotes Dr. David Rasumoff and the ment and evolution of TEMS continues.7 It 1. Carmona, Richard, and David Rasumoff. “Preliminary Review of Tactical EMS Survey.” The Tactical Edge, Winter visionary leadership of Cap- is interesting to note that in one of our earli- 1991, Vol. 9, No. 1: 62. est articles (in 1990) in which we attempted 2. Carmona, Richard, and K. Brennan. “Review of the Na- tain John Kolman, whose to characterize the options for tactical teams tional Conference on Tactical Emergency Medical Support.” The Tactical Edge, Summer 1990, Vol. 8, No. 3: 7-11. providing TEMS, the approach we de- goal was always the health, 3. Carmona, Richard, and David Rasumoff. “Inside the 8 safety and security of our scribed then is still viable today. Perimeter: Aggressiveness, Positive Attitude and the Fight Since 1990, hundreds of TEMS-related or Flight Reactions.” The Tactical Edge, Spring 1990, Vol. 8, No. 2: 44-47. officers and the public. articles have been published in tactical 4. Carmona, Richard, and David Rasumoff. “Inside the Pe- 9, 10 journals as well as peer-reviewed medical rimeter: Tactical Emergency Medical Support.” The Tactical literature,6, 11, 12 and two TEMS textbooks are Edge, Winter 1990, Vol. 8, No. 1: 54-56. now in print.13, 14 Subjects include, but are not 5. Carmona, Richard, and David Rasumoff. “Tactical Emergency Medical Support (TEMS): An Emerging Special- limited to, administrative issues, prevention, ized Area of Prehospital Care.” Prehospital and Disaster centers like Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, specific clinical care, trauma care, integrating Medicine. July-Sept. 1991, Vol. 6, No. 3: 394 (Abstract). MD, providing training to their emergency TEMS and tactics, medical/base station over- 6. Carmona, Richard, and J. Croushorn, editors. Topics in physicians in TEMS, as well as “medical Emergency Medicine, Vol. 25, No. 4. October-December sight, immediate action drills, “buddy care” 2003. control” to several federal and state law and education and teaching TEMS. 7. Carmona, Richard. “TEMS Best Practices and Evidence enforcement agencies. These are but a few TEMS is another excellent example Based Medicine.” The Tactical Edge, Spring 2002, Vol. 20, No. 2, 58. of numerous organizations that contributed of the translation of elements of military 8. Carmona, Richard, and David Rasumoff. “Essentials of 15 to the evolution of TEMS.
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