Hackensack hospital adding a trauma unit on wheels

[Jeffrey Hammond]

To the best of my knowledge, this purchase was a unilateral one, not
coordinated with exisiting agencies in NJ. 

Moreover, I question some of the strategy of well-meaning but not specially
trained personnel going TO the scene. That's a dangerous place. 

In a "limited" mass casualty event (using Mickey Stein's terminology) this
unit won't be needed. The goal will be to move patients from there, not
treat in place. In a really mega-event, it will be too small.  

The biologic incident response vehicle, which presumably has surveillance
equipment, does have have intriguing possibilities however, and I see this
as potentially more valuable than the treatment vehicle.


Jeffrey Hammond MD, MPH
Chief, Trauma/Surgical Critical Care
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
New Brunswick, NJ
ph: 732-235-7920
e-mail: hammond at umdnj.edu
 
-----Original Message-----
From: trauma-list-bounces at trauma.org [mailto:trauma-list-bounces at trauma.org]
On Behalf Of nappio at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 10:07 AM
To: Trauma & Critical Care mailing list
Subject: Re: Hackensack hospital adding a trauma unit on wheels

So what.  A McDonalds can be an OR with a scalpel and a flashlight.  Unless
this unit is deployed as part of a concerted plan under direction of the
appropriate field commander, it is nothing more then a billboard for
Hackensack and the NJ senator.  Is this part of a national program for
emergency response?  Is it part of DMAT team?  I doubt it. But I do bet we
will be seeing it in some parades.  DN Sent from my Verizon Wireless
BlackBerry  

-----Original Message-----
From: "Andrew J Bowman" <andrewj.bowman at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 08:27:34
To:"Trauma &amp; Critical Care mailing list" <trauma-list at trauma.org>
Subject: Re: Hackensack hospital adding a trauma unit on wheels

If I remember correctly, this was one of Dr. R Adams Cowley's initial ideas
before the state of Maryland let him use helicopters.  Semi-trucks that
rolled to the scene of accidents and carried a full trauma team.

Andrew Bowman

----- Original Message -----
From: "S Schecter" <schecters at gmail.com>
To: <trauma-list at trauma.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 8:20 AM
Subject: Hackensack hospital adding a trauma unit on wheels


http://northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkzJmZnYmVsN2Y
3dnFlZUVFeXk3MDI4MTU3

  Wednesday, November 29, 2006

By BOB GROVES
STAFF WRITER

 North Jersey will soon have the nation's first truly mobile emergency
trauma unit -- a hospital on wheels with an operating room, seven beds, a
surgical team, nurses and therapists.

By late next year, victims of catastrophes or terrorist attacks in the metro
area may not need to take an ambulance to the emergency room. Instead,
Hackensack University Medical Center will come directly to them.

Hackensack has received $3.2 million in federal funding to produce the unit,
which will have the navigability of an RV on crowded city streets.

The vehicle will be about the size of a FedEx truck. It will have walls that
expand it to the size of a double-wide mobile home and additional modular
units that house a communications center and a toxic substances testing
laboratory.

"Our goals are to improve outcomes and minimize loss of life from terrorism
and natural disasters," said Dr. Joseph Feldman, chairman of the
Emergency/Trauma Department at Hackensack.

  *ER for house calls*
------------------------------

Hackensack University Medical Center's $3.2 million Mobile Emergency Trauma
Department will include:

..  43-foot truck with expandable sides

..  Portable operating room

..  Seven critical-care beds

..  Digital X-ray

..  Portable field laboratory

..  A small pharmacy

..  Telemetric medicine system

..  Mass casualty and biological incident response support vehicles

Source: HUMC

Hackensack's new emergency trauma unit will be "deployable to any mass
casualty event" in the tri-state area, Feldman said Tuesday during a press
conference at the hospital.

In a disaster, it will be able to maneuver through "densely populated,
debris-filled urban areas," Feldman said.

This will make it superior to a much larger mobile trauma unit operated by
the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Feldman said. That FEMA vehicle is
as cumbersome as a tractor-trailer truck, which hampered it from navigating
the wake of Hurricane Katrina last year, he said.

Rep. Steve Rothman, a Fair Lawn Democrat who helped obtain the federal
funding, stressed that Hackensack's rolling operating room "is a portable
facility" for a highly dangerous region.

"We're delighted to come up with the money to provide a response to
biological, chemical or radioactive incidents," said Rothman, a member of
the House Appropriations Committee.

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, said 9/11 taught
everybody in the metro area a lesson.

"We know life has changed," said Lautenberg, who along with fellow Democrat
Sen. Robert Menendez, help procure the Hackensack mobile unit funding.

"One of the worst things is not to be able to get to a place we have to be
when an emergency happens," he said. "This unit will get to the scene in a
hurry. This mini-hospital can make the difference between life or death. It
will bring an emergency room and acute care people need."

The modular vehicle will be operated by members of the hospital's disaster
preparedness team, and additional people who will be hired for the job,
Feldman said.

The additional unit, however, will not shortchange staffing at Hackensack's
emergency department, which handles 90,000 patients per year, he said.

E-mail: groves at northjersey.com
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