User:Odulair/Mobile Surgery Unit

Mobile Surgery Unit new article content ... "Mobile Surgery Units" (MSUs) are high-tech mobile (transportable) surgery facilities. Also known as "hospital on wheels", Mobile Surgery Units are designed to deliver on-site surgical services in existing healthcare facilities, remote locations, correctional facilities (prisons), and other locations where a sterile operating room would not commonly be available. As an example, "Mobile Surgery Units" can be used by hospitals renovating their operating rooms or to provide additional operating room capacity when needed. Mobile Surgery Units can support physician groups with insufficient case volume to justify a free-standing Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) or provide on-site surgery at correctional facilities thereby reducing the "risk of flight" from prisoners. One value of the MSU is its ability to support disaster readiness applications and international and humanitarian missions. Since their initial manufacture in the early 1990's, Mobile Surgery Units have been utilized during Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ike, the tsunami in Thailand, and many other natural disaster emergency preparedness activities.

Features of Mobile Surgery Units:

   Set-up and fully functional within hours requiring few personnel
   To meet American Institute of Architects (AIA) Guidelines, MSUs must be configured with an entrance, pre-/post-operative area, nurses' station, handicapped accessible bathroom/changing area, separate soiled and clean utility rooms, spacious operating room (approximately 400 square feet)
   Self-contained with integrated power, lighting, heating, ventilation (HEPA filtration), air conditioning, plumbing, medical gas/vacuum, nurse call, synchronized time, intrusion alarm, fire suppression, and communications systems
   Transportable by tractor, train or ship
   Redundant systems for power, water, vacuum and communications
   Holding tanks for storage of potable, gray and black water
   Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) system

Benefits of Mobile Surgery Units:

   Rapid set-up allows for fast delivery of patient care
   May be integrated with existing structures such as hospitals, clinics, or other healthcare facilities
   Easy to clean surfaces provide infection control
   Equipped with easily reconfigurable modular cabinetry for storage of medical supplies and equipment
   Telemedicine-ready

Many Mobile Surgery Unit users have documented cost savings in millions of dollars from utilizing Mobile Surgery units relative to hospital renovation projects for government, private and public hospitals. Users save money by utilizing MSUs to replace operating rooms being renovated or added. Use of the MSUs allow government facilities to avoid outsourcing surgery at considerable expense while maintaining the revenue stream for private and public facilities. Use of MSU facilitates faster construction and provides a safe environment for patients to receive surgery without the risk of exposure to construction contaminants.

Because completely new hospitals are only built every half century or so, often times a Mobile Surgery Unit offers a more advanced operating room than the actual in-hospital operating room. One example of this is the number of complete air exchanges per hour, which provides operating room sterility. Many older hospital operating rooms range from 10 to 15 complete room air exchanges per hour, whereas most Mobile Surgery Units provide 25 complete air exchanges per hour. Although not verified, some hospitals utilizing Mobile Surgery Units have begun documenting a lower post-surgical infection rate on patients whose surgery was performed in a Mobile Surgery Unit.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_hospital http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intensive_care_unit#Mobile_intensive_care_unit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Comfort_%28T-AH-20%29

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