Field Hospital Training
In May, several members of our team traveled to eastern Africa to set-up a new Level II Field Hospital. The trip involved training end users on deployment and operation of this mixed container and shelter based facility, and concluded with a mass casualty drill.
Read about this trip below, and scroll to the bottom of this post to see video of the mass casualty drill.
Project background
This project was a full, turnkey U.N. Standard Level II Field Hospital. Western Shelter provided 12 standard sized containers, 9 GateKeeper 1935s, 2 GateKeeper 20s, 11 GateKeeper Vestibules, and all included components. Systems included:
Container Based:
Hygiene
Laundry
Kitchen
Generator
Surgical Bridge
Transport
GateKeeper Based:
Medical Ward
Surgical Ward
Sterilization
ICU
Lab
Radiology
Operating Theater
Recovery
Dental/Optical
The scope of what this hospital can provide, when deployed in the field, is massive. A Level II Field Hospital is set up for*:
Support for population up to 1,000
40 outpatients treated per day
4 major surgical procedures per day
10 dental consultations per day
Medical supplies and consumables for 2 months
*Levels of Medical Support for United Nations Peacekeeping Operations
Military Medicine, Vol. 164 7/99
Set-up training
Week one involved training the end user to deploy the shelters. While our shelters themselves are very quick deploying, an entire hospital setup could easily take a full day to deploy. After initial training, the team was able to deploy the entire setup in less than half a day.
Operations training
With setup complete, training shifted to operations. With many components, including full HVAC, generators, lighting, water distribution, and medical equipment, there was quite a bit of hands on training to be had.
Representatives from Western Shelter as well as the program’s on-site medical doctor were there to guide the end user through initial setup and training on the equipment.
Mass Casualty Training
The mass casualty training exercise involved 25 users acting as victims, all with varying ailments requiring different levels of response and care. The rest of the users acted in different hospital roles to ensure the victims received the care that they needed.
It was an very successful setup and training trip. The users were quickly able to learn how to set the system up, and after initial deployment made modifications in the field to better suit their needs. We look forward to returning to the region again soon to deliver an additional hospital.