Greater Cincinnati Health Council’s region utilizes Welch Allyn’s Mobile Acuity LT” Central Stations to manage surge for emergency response efforts
CINCINNATI, Ohio — A collaboration of health care organizations in the greater Cincinnati tri-state region recently became one of the first in the country to build portable treatment areas that can be deployed in the event of a mass-casualty emergency. Last year, a local consortium of hospitals, public health and emergency organizations invested more than $2.5 million in federal funding to build a centralized means of handling patients during large-scale incidents related to natural disasters or terrorist attacks.
And last month, their vision became a reality.
“We are pleased to be able to say we’ve collaborated and now are much better prepared,” said Tonda Francis, RN, MSN, regional hospital coordinator for the Greater Cincinnati Health Council. “It’s unfortunate that we need to put systems in place to deal with potential mass casualties related to terrorist attacks and natural disasters, but we are fortunate to have received funding from the Urban Area Security Initative (UASI) and to take advantage of state-of-the-art technology that can help us care for more people in any kind of situation.”
The area secured enough funding to build a regional cache of equipment and supplies that can be deployed in the event of a disaster. The cache is outfitted with 50 Welch Allyn Propaq® monitors. Each can connect to a Welch Allyn Mobile Acuity LT”.a laptop-based central monitoring station that offers a unique ability to establish treatment areas in emergency response environments. Each Mobile Acuity LT system can support 12 patients, and multiple systems can be deployed at the same time to cover up to 120 patients in the same emergency medical delivery area.
“The original intent of our Mobile Acuity LT system was to help overtaxed hospitals and health care facilities deal with growing capacity issues,” said Doug Linquest, executive vice president at Welch Allyn. “But organizations like disaster preparedness groups have even greater appreciation for the benefits the LT system provides in managing large numbers of patients simultaneously. he system allows patients to be stabilized and monitored when transportation is unavailable or in a disaster situation when hospitals are overwhelmed.”
In addition to working with Cincinnati’s emergency management organizations, Welch Allyn recently partnered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to build and deploy mobile medical units in the Louisiana area following Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma. The company supplied over 10 Mobile Acuity LT” Central Stations and 100 Propaq® monitors to the federal government in the wake of the recent string of disasters in the Gulf region.
About Welch Allyn
Welch Allyn, Inc. was founded in 1915 and is today a leading manufacturer of innovative medical diagnostic and therapeutic devices, cardiac defibrillators, patient monitoring systems, and miniature precision lamps. Headquartered in Skaneateles Falls, New York, USA, Welch Allyn employs more than 2,300 people and has numerous manufacturing, sales, and distribution facilities located throughout the world. Additional information on Welch Allyn and its products may be found at www.welchallyn.com.