The arrival of an 18 tractor-trailer convoy transporting the National Disaster Mobile Hospital (MDH) from Mocksville, N.C., and the efforts of scores of volunteers, responders, partners, contractors and even prisoners will complete the transformation later this week of a former plant site destroyed by a tornado April 28 in Louisville, Miss., into a community medical center where residents and their neighbors can go for medical care. The site is expected to be fully operational on May 16.
The array of trailers and hard-shelled structures has taken shape on the concrete floor of the former silk flower distributor that was struck and in the storm that took 10 local lives and tore through the community of 19,000, including medical offices and the hospital.
Teams cleared the plant debris to create a smooth-surfaced site where the temporary medical facility started taking shape. The effort was coordinated by Lew Stringer, the National Mobile Disaster Hospital project manager. Stringer and a cadre of experts and coordinators from the North Carolina Office of Emergency Medical Services, N.C. Emergency Management, and North Carolina Baptist Men, along with FEMA, Mississippi emergency management personnel and a local medical team combined forces to configure the temporary facility to meet local needs.
Hours of technical coordination resulted in electricity and water becoming available to the site and its components, and work is under way to develop a sewage system for the site.
But it is the return to the community’s residents of medical services expected later this week, and the continued employment for the area’s medical professionals that Stringer says is the most rewarding accomplishment of the past two weeks’ labors.
“The medical personnel will not have to leave here to find work so they can feed their families, and for that I thank the Lord,” Stringer said. “They will be able to continue to provide health care with their own staff, and their own disposal supplies, and bill for it.”
The MDH has a flexible design so that components can be deployed as needed. For this deployment, Mississippi initially requested an emergency department, patient wards, X-ray, and central supply, and followed up with pending requests for labs and pharmacy.
Already in place is an emergency department with two major trauma and three minor patient beds, a 10-bed patient care ward, the X-ray and supply unit, and a multi-shower unit.
Regina Godette-Crawford, chief of NCOEMS, spent the past weekend on-site. “All of our team members have done a terrific job putting everything in place and coordinating with the local, state and federal partners who have come together to help this community,” she said. “This effort demonstrates the value of all our planning and of the professional relationships we have developed over the years in our efforts to be ready to respond when our help is needed.”
Mary Beth Skarote, who served as team leader for the responders from the NCOEMS, also served as health and medical liaison with state and local representatives. She said previous experiences with Mississippi go back to 2005 when North Carolina responded with emergency medical teams in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. That helped lay the groundwork for coordinating this month’s response in Louisville.
“As part of our Region 4 partnership with them, we train with them, and they have personnel on the MDH planning group, so everything is familiar to them,” Skarote said. “That early relationship has been the key to working smoothly together.”
Other North Carolina responders include Bobby Cooper, director of Transylvania County Emergency Medical Services; Paul King, Charlotte Fire Department; Jim Morris, NCOEMS Western Branch; Jeffrey Peterson, Carolinas Medical Center; Charles Voigt, Metrolina State Medical Assistance Team II;
Melissa Greene and Dennis Hancock, area coordinators, N.C. Emergency Management;
Howie Adams, logistics subject matter expert for MDH; Cary Setzer, biomedical technician; and Team Leader Sharon Childers-Moser and 24 volunteer members of the logistics support team from N.C. Baptist Men Disaster Relief.
Progress at the site means that some of the equipment in the initial deployment can be brought back to North Carolina and prepared for the next deployment. Hurricane season in the Atlantic begins June 1.
Beyond the friendships and professional relationships that are built during responses like this, there was also a learning experience for Skarote to bring home from her 10 days in Mississippi. “I learned a whole lot about hospital regulations,” she quipped. “And there are a lot of them.”