A pop-up hospital pops up

The first time Mark Ross inflated the giant new hospital tent, it took 22 minutes. Yesterday, he did it in 14.

In the event of a large-scale emergency - a direct hit by a hurricane, say, or a plane in the Delaware River - Ross and other volunteers could have a mobile hospital running anywhere in Southeastern Pennsylvania within two to four hours of the first alert.

Yesterday in Valley Forge, dozens of current and potential volunteers got to see the three tan and white tents - and reams of equipment - for the first time. The $1 million cost was paid by state and federal governments.

With a portable generator, 50 cots, 130 ventilators, 26 wireless cardiac monitors and 27 patient carts loaded with tongue depressors, eye shields and IV sets, the new rapid-response team is intended to fill the 72-hour gap before federal emergency help arrives after a disaster.

The attacks of Sept. 11 plus natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina highlighted a lack of emergency preparedness around the country and freed federal funds for improvement. Authorities say Southeastern Pennsylvania is among the first regions to assemble what is essentially a peacetime MASH unit.

The team has already gotten its first call - after a plane crash-landed in the Hudson River last month - but it was rescinded when everyone was quickly rescued.

Having this kind of "pop-up equipment" is really important, said Jeff Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health, a Washington nonprofit that evaluates preparedness. "And it's important to have pop-up doctors, too."

So far, the South Eastern Pennsylvania Specialized Medical Response Team consists of equipment and a few dozen volunteers - enough to set up the hospital but not to handle a full emergency.

The Valley Forge Convention Center donated space yesterday so that hospital and rescue people could become familiar with the operation and, it was hoped, sign up for duty. Only about a half-dozen did, although 100 or so took brochures.

"We're looking for doctors, nurses, support people such as respiratory therapists, as well as general support," said Thomas Grace, a vice president of the Delaware Valley Healthcare Council, who wrote the plan and manages the team. Grace said his eventual goal was a team of 250.

Besides on-site deployment at disasters, the three tents could be set up outside a hospital to handle the surge of patients from a major event.

"Hospitals now are often at 90 percent capacity, and during flu season even more," said Edward Jasper, the director of Thomas Jefferson University's Center for Bioterrorism and Disaster Preparedness, who serves as medical director for the new team.

Gina Skipper, a trauma nurse who signed up for the team a month ago, switched her day off at Reading Hospital so she could attend yesterday's demo. She was rifling through drawers in the plastic patient carts to understand the contents.

Both she and Ross, the volunteer who inflated the tent, said their regular work gave them a good sense of most equipment, although more formal training is planned.

Ross' day job is director of security and emergency preparedness at Mercy Suburban Hospital in East Norriton and he also serves as deputy chief of the King of Prussia Fire Company. But the new team, he said, offered more.

"This is true community helping community in need or in a disaster situation," he said. Reflecting on Katrina, where delays hurt patients, he said: "This is designed for that not to happen here."

Standing in a three-layer 25-by-36-foot tent he had helped set up, Ross couldn't help marveling at all the "toys" for the team, such as the heating and air-conditioning systems and the portable ventilators, slightly larger than a shoe box (in a regular hospital, they are bigger than a mini-fridge).

Grace, the project manager, was originally trained as an ER nurse. He set up the helicopter evacuation operation at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in 1987, and has held many emergency management posts.

Creating the new team, he said. "was my dream."