Executive Order  No. 4: Civil Defense Medical Services Organization

WHEREAS, by Executive Order No. 3, issued October 18, 1950, the Governor established a Medical and Health Division within the Civil Defense Agency of the Commonwealth, assigned the Department of Public Health as the sponsoring agency for said Medical and Health Division, named the Commissioner of Public Health as the head, ex officio, of said Medical and Health Division and directed that each local organization for civil defense include, in so far as is practicable, a Medical and Health Division; and

WHEREAS, by said Executive Order No. 3, the Governor also established nine regions within the Commonwealth for the purpose of administering the civil defense plan and program, created the post of Regional Director for each region and provided for a Board of Regional Coordinators for the Medical and Health Service in each region; and

WHEREAS, it is essential to organize and train all available medical and health personnel and to provide for their mobilization in event of disaster, emergency or catastrophe and also to provide for the coordinated use of all available medical and health equipment, supplies and facilities in event of disaster, emergency or catastrophe:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Paul A. Dever, Governor of the Commonwealth, acting under the provisions of Acts of 1950, chapter 639 and all other authority vested in me, do hereby issue this order as part of the comprehensive plan and program for the civil defense of the Commonwealth and as a necessary preparatory step in advance of actual disaster, emergency or catastrophe.

1.  The Medical and Health Divisions of the Civil Defense Agency of the Commonwealth and of the local organizations for civil defense shall make preparations to furnish the following services in event of disaster, emergency or catastrophe, in so far as their personnel, supplies, equipment and facilities permit:  first aid and ambulance; hospital and medical; blood; laboratory; vital statistics; mortuary; communicable disease control; monitor; biological and chemical defense; environmental sanitation; food and nutrition; health supplies.

2.  The following agencies of the Commonwealth are assigned as supporting agencies to assist the Department of Public Health, as sponsoring agency for the Medical and Health Division of the Civil Defense Agency of the Commonwealth, in the performance of such functions of said Medical and Health Division as may be related to the existing powers and duties of such agencies:

Commission on Administration and Finance
Department of Agriculture
Department of the Attorney General
Department of Civil Service and Registration
    - Board of Dental Examiners
    - Board of Registration in Embalming and Funeral Directing
    - Board of Registration in Medicine
    - Board of Registration in Nursing
    - Board of Registration in Pharmacy
    - Board of State Examiners of Plumbers
    - Board of Registration of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors
    - Board of Registration in Veterinary Medicine
Department of Correction
Department of Education
Department of Labor and Industries
    - Division of Occupational Hygiene
Department of Mental Health
Metropolitan District Commission
Department of Public Safety
    - Division of Inspection, Building Inspection Service
Department of Public Welfare
Department of the State Secretary
    - Bureau of Vital Statistics
University of Massachusetts

3.  Subject to the direction and control of the Commissioner of Public Health as head of the Medical and Health Division of the Civil Defense Agency of the Commonwealth, each Regional Director, with the assistance of his Regional Co-ordinators for the Medical and Health Service, shall:

1. Supervise and assist in the organization and training of the Medical and Health Divisions of the local organizations for civil defense.
2. Expedite the making of any study and survey of medical and health personnel, equipment, supplies and facilities required to be made under the provisions of Executive Order No. 1, issued September 8, 1950, or any other Executive Order hereafter issued.

4.  During a state of emergency proclaimed by the Governor under the provisions of Acts of 1950, chapter 639, section 5, the Director of a local organization for civil defense may, when he deems the medical and health facilities available in his city or town inadequate to deal with conditions existing in such city or town as a result of disaster, emergency or catastrophe, request the Regional Director to mobilize and dispatch to such city or town additional medical and health personnel, supplies or equipment.

Upon receipt of such request the Regional Director shall have authority to dispatch to such city or town, with the approval of the Director of Civil Defense for the Commonwealth (hereinafter called the "State Director"), such additional medical and health personnel, supplies or equipment from any city or town within the region as the Regional Director deems necessary.

5.  During said state of emergency a Regional Director may, when he deems the medical and health facilities available in his region inadequate to deal with conditions existing in such region as a result of disaster, emergency or catastrophe, request the State Director to mobilize and dispatch to such place or places in the region as the Regional Director requests, additional medical and health personnel, supplies or equipment.

Upon receipt of such request the State Director shall have authority to dispatch to such place or places, with the approval of the Governor, such additional medical and health personnel, supplies or equipment as the State Director deems necessary.

6.  Medical and health personnel, supplies or equipment dispatched to a city or town under the provisions of the preceding paragraphs shall be under the command and control of the head of the Medical and Health Division of the local organization for civil defense in said city or town.

7.  In the event that it becomes necessary to move hospitalized patients or casualties out of a city or town as a result of disaster, emergency or catastrophe, the Regional Director shall determine the place or places within the region to which said patients or casualties shall be moved and the number of patients or casualties to be moved to each such place.

8.  In the event that it becomes necessary to move hospitalized patients or casualties out of a region as a result of disaster, emergency or catastrophe, the State Director shall determine the place or places to which said patients or casualties shall be moved and the number of patients or casualties to be moved to each such place.

GIVEN at the Executive Chamber in Boston this thirtieth day of November in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifty, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the one hundred and seventy-fifth.

By His Excellency the Governor, Paul A. Dever

Edward J. Cronin
Secretary of the Commonwealth