Carolinas MED-1 serving flood-devastated Indiana hospital

Tag : hospital mobile

Carolinas MED-1, a first of its kind prototype mobile hospital thatserved the medical needs of Hurricane Katrina victims on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2005, has deployed toColumbus, Indiana, to provide care for the people of BartholomewCounty while officials work to reopen emergency services atColumbus Regional Hospital (CRH), closed after strong storms anddevastating floods caused severe damage to that area on June 7.Carolinas MED-1 is located on the CRH campus, and the majority ofthe clinical care is to be provided by CRH physicians and nurses.
MED-1 creator Dr. Tom Blackwell, an emergency medicine specialistat Carolinas Medical Center and medical director of the MecklenburgCounty EMS Agency (Medic), says that during the Katrina responsethe unit exceeded expectations under the harshest of circumstances.
"The destruction was beyond anything any of us could haveimagined," he said. "We set up in the parking lot of a devastatedshopping center and began seeing patients immediately, with thedaily count peaking at more than 300. MED-1 answered a tremendousneed. Since that deployment, we have made very few adjustments,mostly in terms of meeting crew comfort and needs.
"While we hoped that Carolinas MED-1 would never again be needed tothe extent it was in 2005, history tells a different story," saidDr. Blackwell. "Now Columbus and many other areas in the Midwesthave suffered devastating flooding and we are answering the call."
Owned and developed by Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NorthCarolina, Carolinas MED-1 was conceived in 2000 as an answer tomedical needs that might follow a natural or manmade disaster. Itwas first deployed to Waveland/Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, onSeptember 2, 2005, just four days after Hurricane Katrina ravagedthe Gulf Coast. MED-1 set up in a shopping center parking lot andduring its deployment, more than 7,500 patients were cared for byteams from a number of North Carolina medical centers. Four monthslater the unit was dispatched to New Orleans to augment localhospitals during the first Mardi Gras following the Katrina-causedflooding of that city. In two weeks, 575 patients were treated.
On the Web at: http://www.carolinasmed1.org/