Determining Medical Staffing Requirements for Humanitarian Assistance Missions.

摘要

The primary mission of the hospital ship is to provide acute medical and surgical services to forces ashore and afloat during military operations. In addition, the hospital ship also has the mission of providing a hospital asset in support of disaster relief and humanitarian assistance (HA) operations. This secondary mission provides medical care to a different population with a set of medical conditions not common to combat casualty care, thus affecting the manning requirements. Information from a variety of sources was used to better understand humanitarian missions conducted by the hospital ships. Factors such as time on site, security threats, and location characterize the mission. Patient encounter data from previous missions were used to determine expected patient conditions encountered in various HA operations. Support task information was gathered from subject matter experts. These data points were used to project the medical and support tasks required for future missions. To accomplish a successful HA mission, the operational requirements and goals must be set ahead of time. The expected patient conditions and the time at each site, determine the best medical specialties to embark. Humanitarian missions accomplish more than just the number of patients seen???effective HA helps host nations become self-sufficient.