The National Institute of Medical Emergency holds the Portuguese Emergency Medical Team - PT EMT, certified by WHO in 2019, and since then its activity has been growing in several areas: assistance, advice, training, and cooperation between partners.

Our aim is to present the lessons learnt over five years of PT EMT’s activity in national and international missions and how the cycle of continuous improvement implemented to date has progressed.

Analyze the evolution of the PT EMT and incorporate the lessons learnt into the continuous improvement cycle.

Case study, analysis and reflection on lessons learnt from PT EMT deployments.

From 2019 to 2024, PT EMT was involved in 3 standby international deployments and 20 effective deployments: 8 international, 4 national Mass Gathering events, 1 national insular territory, 3 EU MODEX exercises, 2 mainland Portugal, 1 international territory and 1 MEDEVAC.

The planning, preparation and implementation of each deployment was specific and unique, depending on mission profile. This diversity and number of missions has streamlined internal and external processes, making deployment more efficient and faster, particularly the organization and standardization of medical kit loads, their weight and volume, their packaging for air or land transport, which has made it easier to draw up the cargo manifest.

As a result of the activity described above, continuous improvement processes have been implemented in various areas, namely: data records and collection; communication strategies with staff pool; team medical readiness; cargo manifest; packaging and transport; mission files preparation; management of clinical and logistical supply chain.