Photo courtesy of KION News Channel 5/46. Photo and article credits to Kion 546 News Channels.

Santa Cruz County, California recently acquired 6 BLU-MED^® mobile hospitals from the state. The mobile hospitals will be used to provide emergency and medical response services following man-made or natural disasters including earthquakes, fires, and mud slides. “The goal is to be ready for anything,” stated Nancy Yellin, Medical Reserve Coordinator.

A demonstration and training exercise was held at Watsonville Community Hospital to familiarize crews, emergency management staff, and medical reserve teams with the rapid setup and operation of a multi-functional mobile hospital, should critical infrastructure be damaged. “We want to make sure we can provide the necessary medical care to the members of the public,” explained Brenda Brenner, the Emergency Medical Services Administrator for Santa Cruz county.

Markell Pierce, the Program Manager for Emergency Medical Services, discussed the portability of the BLU-MED mobile hospitals, “We can put these up anywhere. We’ve set them up on the piers, along the bay, we’ve set them up in the hillside in Monterey.” Brenda Brenner further elaborated on the benefits of portable medical shelters: “What’s great about these [medical shelters] is we can load them on a flatbed truck and drive them to where they are needed and set them up wherever there is enough space to do that.”

The 6 newly acquired medical shelters are part of California’s plan to distribute several smaller mobile hospitals throughout the state.

Additional information for the following organizations can be found online or by calling the numbers below.

BLU-MED Response Systems^®
www.blu-med.com
+1-425-739-2795

County of Santa Cruz – Emergency Medical Services

http://www.santacruzhealth.org/HSAHome/HSADivisions/PublicHealth/EmergencyMedicalServices.aspx
+1-831-454-4120