Harris Methodist Hospitals and Texas Health Resources Unveil the First Portable Inflatable Surge Capacity Unit in the Nation

FORT WORTH, Texas, Dec. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The Internet, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Humvees are examples of military tools and technology transitioned from the military world that now benefit civilian life. The military's famous portable surge hospitals, or MASH units, are making a similar debut. Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital (HMFW) and Harris Methodist Northwest Hospital (HMNW), part of the Texas Health Resources System (THR), will be the first hospitals in the nation to privately own a non- military inflatable, portable surge capacity unit. Designed to supplement an existing hospital in the case of an emergency, this civilian portable surge capacity unit will be used exclusively for emergency needs such as: mass casualty events, quarantining patients with an infectious agent or communicable disease, bioterrorism or terrorist attack or a pandemic flu outbreak, an issue recently gaining public and medical community attention.

On December 15 at 2 p.m., join Congresswoman Kay Granger, Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital, Harris Methodist Northwest Hospital and Texas Health Resources as we unveil this gift to the community.(1)

A Gift to Benefit the Community

Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital and Harris Methodist Northwest Hospital received a federal grant that Congresswoman Kay Granger helped secure in the amount of $441,929 to support hospital bioterrorism initiatives. HMFW, HMNW and THR saw the benefit of investing this grant in a portable surge capacity unit to supplement the hospital during a crisis. Texas Health Resources' 13 hospitals contributed an additional $235,580 of federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant monies to support the project. Each hospital in the system receives HRSA dollars annually for emergency preparedness.

"The opportunity to mobilize medical care and increase isolation capacity is the most difficult of the many critical benchmarks outlined by HRSA for hospitals participating in the federal grant program," said Dinah Cannefax, director of emergency preparedness and safety at Texas Health Resources. "We are proud to have reached a major milestone in hospital preparedness."

A large step towards being prepared is having the technology and resources that the new inflatable, portable surge capacity unit provides. The 2,700 square-foot unit is equipped with:

* 26 medical/surgical beds * 10 triage beds * Four intensive care unit beds * Negative pressure air-flow, providing isolation wards for patients who have infectious or communicable diseases * Insulated siding and climate controlled temperatures inside the unit * Self-sustained generators for inflation and electrical capacity for medical equipment

The back-log of patients that health care facilities in Louisiana and Texas experienced during Hurricane Katrina and Rita further encouraged Harris Methodist Hospitals and Texas Health Resources to invest in the ability to 'surge-in-place.' This provides extra capacity for the hospital to triage and treat large numbers of patients near the hospital if a mass casualty incident occurred.