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51st Medical Group test medical decontamination shelter

Feb. 3, 2003

OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea - A 19-person team comprised of several Air Force specialties from the 51st Medical Group are doing their part to improve chemical and biological defense capability within the Air Force and Department of Defense.

The team operated a small-shelter patient decontamination system, also known as a medical decontamination shelter, as part of the final Restoration of Operations Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration during the combat employment readiness exercise Sunday.

The 52' X 20' canvass facility, manufactured by Alaska Industry, is set up for ambulatory and non-ambulatory patients contaminated with biological or chemical agents and is located approximately 250 feet away from a medical treatment facility.

"The set up is similar to our internal process (in the hospital)," said Col. Frederick Schaeffer, 51st Medical Operations Squadron deputy commander. "The objective here is to decontaminate the patients prior to admitting them into a permanent facility."

The team composition is also important, added Schaeffer. "We want to make sure we have the right Air Force specialties on the line to monitor the patients' status as they process through the line."

The team worked Saturday in preparation of Sunday's demonstration, walking through the process with members of the ACDT training team.

"We walked them through with several patients on Saturday and they were a little slow processing them," said Jerry Sue Thompson, RestOps medical decontamination shelter assessment lead. "However, they were very quick on Sunday; it took them little to no time to process the 13 mock patients."

The first patient the team processed on Sunday was a 180-pound mannequin. "We wanted to give them a contrast to working with real people who cooperate with them," added Thompson. "When most non-ambulatory patients come in, they will be in a state similar to the mannequin, unable to respond to what is requested of them."

The first - and most important - step of the process is disrobing the patient, said Thompson. "It's important to get the member out of contaminated clothing without getting any agents on the person. Therefore it's vital to remove the clothes in a certain order."

After disrobing, the patient is washed down at two different locations on the non-ambulatory side and one on the ambulatory. Once through the line, a monitor checks the member for any additional contamination. If no agents are detected, the member proceeds to the medical facility for treatment. (PACAFNS)