State Medical Assistance Team Field Hospital is similar to a military field hospital

Courtesy Photo | A hand painted sign identifies the entrance to a makeshift field hospital set up around a state-of-the-art mobile medical trailer, known as Med 1, operated by the North Carolina State Medical Assistance Team or SMAT. The facility was set up September 4 in the parking lot of the Kmart in Waveland, Miss. to assist the residents of the area in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The SMAT workers expect to be on site until the storm damaged county hospital; Hancock Medical Center reopens in about two months. hkat  

WAVELAND, MS, UNITED STATES

09.16.2005

Courtesy Story

196th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

Staff Sgt. Bob Barko Jr. 196TH MPAD

WAVELAND, Miss -- The North Carolina-based State Medical Assistance Team Field Hospital is similar to a military field hospital said Randy Kearns, the Daywatch Commander of this SMAT field hospital operation.

The facility handles admissions as well as surgical procedures and is designed to help existing medical facilities with overflow in an area affected by a natural disaster. In this case Hancock Medical Center had been closed because of flooding. The water was up to three feet high throughout the building and the hospital also suffered wind damage. The hospital is not expected to reopen for nearly two months.

Joy Ann Zuppardo, a resident of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi was impressed with the field hospital from the moment she saw it.

"When I came in last night, I thought it was a real hospital," she said.

Zuppardo is one of about 1100 patients the field hospital has aided since it opened.

Dr. Tom Blackwell, SMAT medical director and head of Medical Operations said the hospital trailer at the center of the tent, known as Med 1, is what makes the level of care provided by the SMAT field hospital possible. He said the field hospital project had been funded by the Department of Homeland Security.

FAST FACTS:
SMAT capacity: 100 beds
Services: Surgery unit, 12 ER Intensive Care beds
Staff: 90 people
Became operational: Sept. 4

hkat

• Date Taken: 09.16.2005
• Date Posted: 09.16.2005 11:37
• Story ID: 3028
• Location: WAVELAND, MS, US