Cache drill is set, community members invited to tour site

Sunday, October 12, 2008

SIKESTON -- An alternative care site hospital with use of the new medical cache equipment will be deployed Tuesday at the Sikeston Armory. The equipment and supplies are designed to equip a hospital to provide basic medical care during a disaster.

The public is welcome to tour the alternate hospital at the Armory from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

This summer, Missouri Delta Medical Center received four large shipping containers equipped with enough cots and supplies for a 1,000 bed hospital, which is an enormous asset for Region E Hospitals, according to a news release from MDMC. The cache could assist in providing basic medical care at an alternative site if a hospital is destroyed; or in conjunction with a hospital if a disaster results in more patients than a current hospital can readily handle.

The cache was purchased with a $250,000 assistant secretary of preparedness and response grant through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Participating agencies and hospitals will deploy the cache on Tuesday to exercise the response in deploying a hospital into an alternative care site.

Participants include: Missouri Delta Medical Center, the city of Sikeston, Missouri Southern Healthcare, VNA of Southeast Missouri, Southeast Missouri Hospital, St. Francis Medical Center, city of Cape Girardeau, local Public Health Departments, Proctor & Gamble, Ripley County Memorial Hospital, Iron County Memorial, Landmark Hospital, Pemiscot Memorial Hospital, Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center, PTI-Hart Trucking and the National Guard.

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