Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T06:14:38.972Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 14 - Medical Aspects in a Field Hospital

from Section 4 - Clinical Considerations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2020

By
Ian Miskin  and
Eliezer Schwartz
Edited by
Elhanan Bar-On ,
Kobi Peleg  and
Yitshak Kreiss
Elhanan Bar-On
Affiliation:
The Israel Center for Disaster Medicine and Humanitarian Response, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel
Kobi Peleg
Affiliation:
National Center for Trauma & Emergency Medicine Research, The Gertner Institute for Health Policy and Epidemiology and Tel-Aviv University, Disaster Medicine Department
Yitshak Kreiss
Affiliation:
Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel
Get access

Summary

The medical contingent of the field hospital has different roles to play as the deployment continues, due to the changing case load and breakdown of patients and disease. If deployment occurs more than a few days from the event, the need for medical (as opposed to surgical) personnel will increase. This is due to the need to treat chronic medical conditions- due to the collapse of local medical services- and to treat infectious disease (wound infections) and to prevent and treat disease outbreaks.

Preparation for the mission will ultimately determine its success, due to the very short interval between the decision to deploy and deployment. Team preparation should ideally form a vaccinated group who will form the basis of those deployed.

The team must be self-sufficient in most aspects, taking only the minimum from the community: this will require requisition of many items and training in their use.

Infectious diseases personnel will not only guide treatment of patients but also be responsible for the health of the team and disease prevention.

The laboratory is an essential part of the team: microbiology capacity will enable guiding of treatment decisions by identifying antibiotic resistance.

Keywords

Earthquakemedical wardwound infectionantibiotic resistanceinfection controlvector-borne diseasesanimal bitesvaccine recommendation
Type
Chapter
Information
Field Hospitals
A Comprehensive Guide to Preparation and Operation
 , pp. 133 - 139
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Erlich, T, Shina, A, Segal, D, Marom, T, Dagan, D, Glassberg, E. Preparation of medical personnel for an early response humanitarian mission – lessons learned from the Israeli defense forces field hospital in the Philippines. Disaster and Military Medicine 2015: 1: 5.Google Scholar
Wang, J, Ding, H, Lv, Q, et al. 2015 Nepal earthquake: analysis of child rescue and treatment by a field hospital. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness 2016: 10: 716–9.Google Scholar
van Berlaer, G, Staes, T, Danschutter, D, et al. Disaster preparedness and response improvement: comparison of the 2010 Haiti earthquake-related diagnoses with baseline medical data. European Journal of Emergency Medicine 2016: [Epub ahead of print].Google Scholar
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Post-earthquake injuries treated at a field hospital – Haiti, 2010. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2011: 59: 1673–7.Google Scholar
Bar-On, E, Abargel, A, Peleg, K, Kreiss, Y. Coping with the challenges of early disaster response: 24 years of field hospital experience after earthquakes. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness 2013: 7: 491–8.Google Scholar
Farfel, A, Assa, A, Amir, I, et al. Haiti earthquake 2010: a field hospital pediatric perspective. European Journal of Pediatrics 2011: 170: 519–25.Google Scholar
Miskin, IN, Nir-Paz, R, Block, C, et al. Antimicrobial therapy for wound infections after catastrophic earthquakes. The New England Journal of Medicine 2010: 363: 2571–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
The Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics, and Policy (2015). The state of the world’s antibiotics. Washington DC and New Delhi. Online article. https://cddep.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/swa_edits_9.16.pdfGoogle Scholar
Read, DJ, Holian, A, Moller, CC, Poutawera, V. Surgical workload of a foreign medical team after Typhoon Haiyan. ANZ Journal of Surgery 2016: 86: 361–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lin, G, Marom, T, Dagan, D, Merin, O. Ethical and surgical dilemmas in patients with neglected surgical diseases visiting a field hospital in a zone of recent disaster. World Journal of Surgery 2017: 41: 381–5.Google Scholar
Dulski, TM, Basavaraju, SV, Hotz, GA, et al. Factors associated with inpatient mortality in a field hospital following the Haiti earthquake, January–May 2010. American Journal of Disaster Medicine 2011: 6: 275–84.Google Scholar
Redwood-Campbell, LJ, Riddez, L. Post-tsunami medical care: health problems encountered in the International Committee of the Red Cross Hospital in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine 2006: 21: s1–7.Google Scholar
Pape, JW, Rouzier, V, Ford, H, Joseph, P, Johnson, WD Jr, Fitzgerald, DW. The GHESKIO field hospital and clinics after the earthquake in Haiti – dispatch 3 from Port-au-Prince. The New England Journal of Medicine 2010: 362: e34.Google Scholar
World Health Organization, Pan American Health Organization. Guidelines for the use of foreign field hospitals in the aftermath of sudden-impact disasters. Area on emergency preparedness and disaster relief. International meeting. Hospitals in disasters – handle with care. San Salvador, El Salvador, 8–10 July 2003.Google Scholar
Merin, O, Ash, N, Levy, G, Schwaber, MJ, Kreiss, Y. The Israeli field hospital in Haiti – ethical dilemmas in early disaster response. The New England Journal of Medicine 2010: 362: e38.Google Scholar
Kreiss, Y, Merin, O, Peleg, K, et al. Early disaster response in Haiti: the Israeli field hospital experience. Annals of Internal Medicine 2010: 153: 45–8.Google Scholar
Lichtenberger, P, Miskin, IN, Dickinson, G, et al. Infection control in field hospitals after a natural disaster: lessons learned after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology 2010: 31: 951–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zheng, W, Hu, Y, Xin, H. Successful implementation of thirty-five major orthopaedic procedures under poor conditions after the two thousand and fifteen Nepal earthquake. International Orthopaedics 2016: 40: 2469–77.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×