Duty Officer

Duty Officers are the first point of contact for HMCC stakeholders as an incident presents or evolves. The HMCC Duty Officer is available 24/7 via phone and can be reached via email for non urgent matters during regular business hours.

Duty Officers will collaborate with all HMCC member organizations to provide situational awareness, support development of a common operating picture across the communities and agencies in the region, and facilitate resource sharing. They also will notify ESF-8 Duty Officer OPEM when required.

What will the Duty Officer Do?

HMCC staff will rotate shifts as on-call Duty Officers to ensure two functions are continuously in place:

  1. Rapidly receive information and notify HMCC members of an emergency. The Duty Officer will work with other HMCC staff and Mass. Department of Public Health, Office of Emergency Preparedness Leadership to identify if a potential or actual situation warrants a notification to HMCC members.
  2. Determine if additional HMCC actions are necessary. Beyond notifications of potential or actual situations, the Duty Officer will work with both HMCC staff and Mass. Department of Public Health, Office of Emergency Preparedness Leadership to decide upon recommended courses of action by the HMCC.

Contact Duty Officer

Phone: (978) 946 8130

How to Contact the HMCC Duty Officer:

Phone: (978) 946-8130 
Email: Region3HMCCDutyOfficer@mapc.org

Page the HMCC Duty Officer when: there is an emergent need for additional support is needed to address an incident or further threat is pending.

The number provided for the Duty Officer will connect you North-East CMED 24/7/365 Central Medical Dispatch Center located in Lawrence General Hospital. You will be asked to confirm that the desired callback number is that from which you are calling, and you’ll be given the chance to indicate a different callback number if need be. The Communication specialist operator will then will notify the Duty Officer on call.

Expect a Duty Officer to return your call within 10 minutes. Stay by the phone number provided to CMED. During this time, you can review the basics of your situation to provide the Duty Officer with: who, what, when, where, etc.

The Duty Officer might request that you garner further information. You might be asked to get further information to assist the Duty Officer in making the determination of next steps.

As much as possible, when paging the Duty Officer, know what you are asking for! If you’re unsure and just think it is best to call and report an issue that is fine. The Duty Officer will help you work it out! But if you know you have a need or goal from the communication, help the Duty Officer understand the specific nature of your call and request.

Email the Duty Officer when: Non urgent requests, no additional support is needed, or no further threat is pending.

Emails sent to Region3HMCCDutyOfficer@mapc.org will be forwarded to the Duty Officer, but will not wake them in the middle of the night! By its nature, email is a less urgent form of communication, and should not be used to communicate immediate needs unless you and the Duty Officer have spoken and are using email to forward documents, etc.

Emails will receive a reply/confirmation within a reasonable time frame. Emails sent to provide non-emergent situational awareness of situation updates will be replied to ASAP by the Duty Officer to confirm receipt and notify the sender of actions taken with the information.