The CNMI’s first responders have finished the two-day training involving the island’s first mobile field hospital at the Commonwealth Health Center.
Villagomez said the first responders consisted of personnel from the Department of Public Safety’s fire division, the airport police, Public Health staff and the America Red Cross.
He said that the mobile field hospital allows Public Health to augment CHC’s 84-bed capacity.
“We need this mobile field hospital to accommodate patients if an epidemic or other disasters strike, and this mobile hospital can be set up anywhere,” he added.
The mobile field hospital costs about $414,000 and was funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through the Bioterrorism/Pandemic Flu Preparedness Office.
The mobile field hospital is equipped with its own power source, air-conditioning units, a water and plumbing system, and negative pressure capabilities.
It has a laboratory, an x-ray, a surgical suite as well as isolation and emergency room sections.
Fire Safety International North America president Mark Conron and vice president Joseph Villegas conducted the two-day training for the first responders in the CHC parking lot on Thursday and Friday.
Conron said the mobile hospital system takes about an hour to set up.
His company has provided over a hundred mobile field hospital to various jurisditions.
