RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: There has been interest in the Division of Special Projects in Health to offer the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social personnel resources for training and quality thereby respond to potential contingencies. Presented here is their experience in this field. OBJECTIVE: To describe and analyse the productivity in different training programs in emergencies and disasters developed by the Division of Special Projects in Health, Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Observational study in which different training activities conducted by the Division of Special Projects in Health between 1989 and 2014 are described. Descriptive statistics were used. RESULTS: In these 25 years have trained 20,674 participants; 19.451 IMSS and 1,223 other health institutions. The most productive courses were life support (BLS/ACLS) (47.17%), distance courses "Hospital medical evacuation plans and units" (14.17%), the workshop-run "Evacuation of hospital units with an emphasis on critical areas" (5.93%) and course "Programme Evaluators of Hospital Insurance" (8.43%). CONCLUSIONS: Although the Special Projects Division Health has primarily operational functions, it nevertheless has neglected its responsibility to maintain constantly trained and updated institute staff that every day is in a position to face any type of emergency and disaster. This increases the chance that the answer to any contingency is more organised and of higher quality, always to the benefit of the population.