BISMARCK – North Dakota health officials say a rolling emergency room provided by Minnesota and unveiled here Tuesday will boost the state’s ability to respond to emergencies, natural disasters and other events when hospital rooms aren’t available.
The Mobile Medical Unit is a retrofitted semitrailer with eight fully-functional emergency stations and the capacity for up to 16 patients, said Tim Wiedrich, chief of the North Dakota Department of Health’s emergency preparedness and response section.
The roughly 1,000-square-foot trailer with slide-out sides has two critical care beds, a portable X-ray machine, pediatric equipment and beds, pharmaceutical services and basic laboratory diagnostic equipment. It folds up into a 53-foot tractor-trailer combination.
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The tractor that pulls the trailer has a large generator that can power not only the unit but also the seven medical tents the department currently uses in emergency response situations. Hospitals also can request the unit to augment their services when their beds are full.
“This really escalates our capability and capacity,” Wiedrich said.
The Minnesota Department of Health received a federal grant for the unit in 2008 and spent $1.5 million on it, including equipment. Minnesota has since obtained additional assets and determined it no longer needed the unit, offering it to neighboring states, Wiedrich said.
The North Dakota Department of Health applied for the unit and received it for free in mid-May through an arrangement that requires it to be shared with neighboring states when needed and not in use in North Dakota.
“We’re extremely pleased that the state of Minnesota provided this asset to us. We’re even more pleased that we didn’t have to pay anything to get it. It really is an extremely useful tool,” Wiedrich said.
Gov. Jack Dalrymple toured the unit Tuesday morning, calling it “a great acquisition.” He said he can foresee it being used at big public gatherings away from cities, such as festivals.
“It’d be nice to know that this is available,” he said.
State Health Officer Terry Dwelle said public health has become increasingly involved in responding to natural and manmade disasters, including floods, tornadoes, blizzards and train derailments, and the mobile unit “provides that additional capacity to medical assets that are already in the cache.”
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Three to four Health Department staffers will set up and operate the unit, and medical facilities and public health units that use it will supply their own doctors and nurses.
When in use by the Health Department, it’ll be operated by any of the 1,000 doctors, nurses, EMTs and other medical professionals in the state’s Medical Reserve Corps, said Wiedrich, who noted the department’s emergency operations center has been activated 10 times in the past year.
The unit will tour the state this year so local public health officials can be trained on it, after which it’ll be warehoused in Bismarck.
Sanford Health has deployed two mobile clinics to western North Dakota in the past year as a way to provide health-care services for oil-producing companies and their subsidiaries. One truck is in Watford City five days a week and the other is in Minot and goes where it’s needed, according to Stephanie Murdock, Sanford’s vice president of occupational medicine.
Wiedrich said the state’s mobile unit doesn’t compete with private medical providers but rather augments their services.
“I have a feeling we’re going to get fairly creative in terms of its use,” he said.
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