The Republic staff reports
Columbus Regional Hospital will provide emergency services to the community beginning Monday through a mobile emergency department unit.
The mobile emergency department, known as "MED-1," that was previously deployed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, is based at the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C. It is expected to arrive today.
The unit will be set up in a parking lot area near the hospital's main emergency department off 17th Street.
The unit, which will be open 24 hours a day, includes two 53-foot tractor-trailers - one serving as the patient care facility and the other as a support and equipment storage unit.
The patient care area has seven general emergency beds and six critical care beds to offer a full range of emergency services.
"Having this mobile facility available is critical to providing emergency services to our community once again by our own local emergency medicine physicians, CRH nurses and staff," said Dr. Tom Sonderman, an emergency medicine physician and chief medical officer at CRH. "This unit is a field-tested and proven mobile emergency department that will allow us to manage minor to severe emergency medical conditions."
The unit provides all services that are part of emergency department visits, including medical treatment, laboratory, pharmacy support, diagnostic and radiology tests, patient registration and medical records.
CRH anticipates its permanent emergency department will reopen in four to six weeks as restoration work is complete. The mobile unit will remain on site until the permanent facility reopens.
Ambulances will transport patients to the CRH campus.
Patients will be billed for service by emergency physicians and the hospital.