California Purchases Three Mobile Field Hospitals

The state Emergency Medical Services Authority is buying three mobile field hospitals for $18 million and storing them throughout the state to handle casualties from a major natural disaster or terrorist attack.

The Sacramento-based agency is buying three 200-bed mobile field hospitals from BLU--MED Response Systems, a division of Alaska Structures Inc. that is based in Kirkland, Wash.

The deal has not yet been publicly announced, but late Monday, BLU-MED officials confirmed the deal and said an announcement is expected today.

"We're grateful and excited, and we look forward to working with officials on the program," said BLU-MED President Gerrit Boyle.

EMSA director Cesar Aristeiguieta presented a March 28 report that described the contract at a recent meeting of the Emergency Medical Services Commission in Los Angeles.

EMSA is buying the mobile health care facilities as part of the Schwarzenegger administration's efforts to better prepare and equip California to handle a natural disaster or a weapons of mass destruction attack.

Aristeiguieta's report said EMSA wants the hospitals delivered and assembled by June 30. That way, EMSA officials can unveil them during the annual Golden Guardian simulation exercises to help prepare first responders for disasters or attacks.

The BLU-MED systems that EMSA is buying are similar to those the company has already sold to the Air Force and Army, and they have been used in civilian disaster response and military missions, such as after Hurricane Katrina and the tsunamis in Indonesia.

The mobile EMSA hospitals will be deployed only when existing hospital emergency medical capabilities are substantially reduced or overwhelmed by casualties in a disaster or attack.

The portable facilities will be stored in state warehouses in Southern California, the Bay Area and the Sacramento region. The exact locations of the mobile units have not been disclosed.

The facilities will be equipped and staffed by specially created teams of emergency medical personnel who will provide basic emergency surgical and recovery service in sterile facilities.

Each 200-bed hospital will include emergency rooms and operating rooms, intensive care units and nursing care units, and they will offer radiology (X-rays), laboratory, pharmaceutical and food services.

A 2006 EMSA staff report said the state's goal is to have mobile field hospitals on site and ready to accept ailing patients 72 hours after they've been activated.

They are what BLU-MED calls "scalable" and can be built in 200-, 400- or 600-bed configurations based on the need created by the disaster, the report added.

EMSA issued a request for proposals from mobile hospital vendors in January. Although 15 vendors were interested, only four submitted proposals by the Feb. 20 deadline.

Aristeiguieta said one bid was rejected because it exceeded the budget dictated by the state.

The three other bids were reviewed and scored by a panel of officials from EMSA, the California National Guard, the Los Angeles Department of Public Health and the state Department of General Services.

BLU--MED's other customers include Detroit, the Port of Los Angeles, the Nevada Hospital Association, and the South Carolina Public Health Department.

The Bee's Andrew McIntosh can be reached at (916) 321-1215 or amcintosh@ sacbee.com.

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