The Medical Coordination Center program forms a statewide network of hospital-based coordination centers. These centers provide a practical, organizational framework for medical coordination among our public health, healthcare, and emergency management systems. The principal responsibilities of the program are information management and incident support through the integration of public health and healthcare resources into a public safety response.

Additionally, there were MCCs located at Morristown Medical Center (North West Region), Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (Central East Region), Somerset Medical Center (Central West Region), and Cooper University Medical Center (South), all funded by the New Jersey Department of Health.

The MCC Program acts as a regional extension of the New Jersey Department of Health's Division of Public Health Infrastructure, Laboratories, and Emergency Preparedness (DOH-PHILEP). The decentralized program comprises technology-enriched facilities geographically distributed throughout the five recognized public health regions. This approach presents a structure that enables statewide program standardization while maintaining the local specialization that reflects the region's operational protocols and procedures.

The mission of the MCC program is to enhance the statewide capability of maintaining the integrity of New Jersey's public health infrastructure consisting of EMS, Acute Care Hospitals, Public Health Agencies, Long Term Care Facilities, Federally Qualified Healthcare Centers, and Home Care. Collectively these independent entities comprise the "healthcare continuum." To accomplish the mission, the MCC engages with healthcare continuum leaders, local, county, state, and federal Emergency Management officials, and other agencies for regional planning, coordination, and management of medical and medically related activities.

The MCC maintains a robust complement of information technology that is triple and quadruple redundant in some cases, including internet, satellite, video, and radio technology. In addition, the MCC works in conjunction with the Technical Services Division and REMCS to maintain and operate mission-critical equipment.

The footprint of the MCC includes an office suite housing the MCC Coordinator, Data Analyst, a State Planner for the NJ EMS Task Force, and others. In addition, the MCC maintains two conference rooms and a twenty-position operations room in immediate proximity to REMCS.

The MCC Program provides for the coordinated response to both natural and human-made threats that may adversely impact or disrupt the delivery of local, regional, and statewide healthcare services. The program can obtain and share timely event-specific information through multiple communication pathways to our state and regional partners. These pathways include internet-based situational awareness platforms, radio communications (regional communications centers, the New Jersey State Police Trunked Radio System, the New York City Office of Emergency Management), email notification groups, and telephone contact matrices.

The Medical Coordination Center program has become an integral part of the regional emergency response community. It continues to expand its role within the healthcare activities of the northeast region. The MCC has integrated into many regional projects such as the New Jersey EMS Task Force, the Mobile Satellite Emergency Department project, the Urban Area Security Initiative Hospital and EMS subcommittees, the City of Newark MMRS, and local and county Offices of Emergency Management.

Since its inception, the MCC has taken a leading role in healthcare preparedness and response, with activations for numerous incidents and events, such as Flight 1549 landing in the Hudson River, Hurricanes Earl, Irene, and Sandy, New York City Emergency Medical Services Mutual Aid, the Christmas Blizzard of 2010, the Brick Nursing Home Fire of 2011, a plane crash at Newark Liberty International Airport in 2012, the Sandy Hook boat explosion hoax of 2012, Port Newark stowaway incident of 2012, The 2013 NJ Marathon (First marathon post-Boston Bombings), Super Bowl 48, the Papal visit to New York and Philadelphia, the statewide response to Ebola, measles outbreak, and the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Concurrently the MCC has played significant roles in developing several major statewide and regional plans, including the Port Security Plan, Rail Security Plan, Prudential Center Plan, Newark Liberty International Airport Plan, National Disaster Medical System Plan for Newark Liberty International Airport, Tropical Storm/Hurricane Plan and many others. Additionally, the County of Essex and the City of Newark designated the MCC as their lead agency for Emergency Support Function 8 (ESF-8), Health and Medical Services Annex to their Emergency Operations Plans. In this role, the MCC assisted both the County and City Offices of Emergency Management in developing and implementing the Annex.

COVID-19 Response

COVID-19 is the disease caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. By the time that the virus arrived in the United States, a global pandemic had already been declared by the World Health Organization. The rate of transmission, volume of critically ill patients, and number of deaths observed in Asia and Europe caused great concern that the healthcare system in the United States could rapidly become overwhelmed. After the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in New Jersey came on March 4, 2020, the ability of the virus to rapidly spread became apparent. Only six days later, the first death associated with COVID-19 was recorded on March 10, 2020. As more and more cases began to mount in Northern New Jersey Hospitals, the availability of beds, personal protective equipment, and ventilators rapidly decreased. A plan to expand the number of beds available in the state had to rapidly be put in place.

Recognizing the need for a diverse team of experienced professionals to plan, direct and oversee the implementation of Field Medical Stations that were being built under federal government guidance, University Hospital was called upon by the New Jersey Department of Health. There was no other group more likely to be successful at undertaking a large portion of the responsibility for New Jersey’s response to the pandemic, and the Medical Coordination Center at University Hospital was activated with the objective to facilitate the process of “decanting” patients from acute care facilities to field medical stations, to allow for a higher level of care within hospitals, while convalescing patients recovered at other locations. Throughout the incident, the North Region Medical Coordination Center team facilitated the transfer of 304 patients to the Field Medical Station in Secaucus, New Jersey, the East Orange Alternative Care Site, and the USNS Comfort while it operated in the New York Harbor. The effort was tireless, and eagerly met by a well-equipped team.