Marines

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Master Sgt. Tanya Hubbard, medical technician from the 60th Medical Group at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., begins to inspect the supply list on the pallets in Cumuto Barracks, Trinidad and Tobago, on April 8, 2011. Sergeant Hubbard is a part of an expeditionary medical support health response team in support of the Allied Forces Humanitarian Exercise or Fuerzas Alidas Humanitarias 2011. (U.S. Air Force Photo/2nd Lt Joel Banjo-Johnson)

Photo by d Lt Joel Banjo-JohnsonReleased

Air Force tests new health response team in Trinidad and Tobago

8 Apr 2011 | 2nd Lt Joel Banjo-Johnson

More than 40 U.S. Air Force medical personnel from the 60th Medical Group at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., along with four contingency response personnel from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., gathered here to test a new expeditionary medical support health response team in support of Fuerzas Alidas Humanitarias (FA HUM) 2011 or Allied Forces Humanitarian Exercise.

Similar to Expeditionary Medical Support (EMEDS) Basic, health response teams, or HRTs, are a new EMEDS capability that provides prevention, acute intervention, primary care and dental services to support a population-at-risk of 1500-3000. Unlike the EMEDS Basic, the HRT is leaner, faster and more effective.

"The Air Force Medical Service has always been able to deploy the EMEDS Basic rapidly, but the HRT is developed to respond quickly and designed for a faster set up," said Lt. Col. Michael Bruhn, deputy chief of Expeditionary Medical Operations Division at Air Combat Command at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va. "This exercise will allow us to test our new tenting systems, look at new packing mechanisms, and examine the flow of equipment in and off pallets to our facility."

The EMEDS Basic normally uses Alaskan shelters but new tents they are using now are lighter and require less manpower for set up, officials said. The equipment is very similar to an EMEDS Basic and functions include an emergency room, intensive care unit, operating room, pharmacy, dental, laboratory services, radiology, pediatrics, obstetrics, and health administration.

The expectation, officials said, is for the emergency room to reach full operational capability in two hours and the operating room and intensive care units to be operational in less than four hours. When all four units are complete, the HRT has reached full operational capability. This team completed the ER in less than two hours, provided immediate medical care within 20 minutes of arrival to the location and set up the operating room and intensive care unit in under three hours.

"I'm extremely pleased with how well the 60th Medical Group has worked together as a team," said Colonel Bruhn said. "They have created an Air Force standard in this set up."

The team was "hand-selected" from David Grant U.S. Air Force Medical Center at Travis AFB with 20 percent of the team having had experience in Haiti on the U.S. Navy's USS Comfort hospital ship.

"Their feedback is vital in the process," said Col. John Mansfield, 60th MDG deputy commander at Travis AFB and evaluator for the exercise. "They are the experts with EMEDS and now with the HRT so they will be able to compare and contrast the differences between the two and realize what can be improved within the HRT."

Marine Corps Base Quantico