USAMC Hosts University Board of Trustees

The University of South Alabama Board of Trustees met at USAMC as the Committee of the Whole, on June 8.

The Board meets quarterly to conduct business and meets at different venues on the University's various campuses. This is the first time it has met at USAMC since the University acquired the hospital in 1970.

The Committee of the Whole meets with the 18 members of the Board and several members of the University's administrative team. After considering several meeting spaces in the hospital, it was decided to give the Board a view of Mobile that few get to see: from the 10th floor of the hospital.

The solarium on the east end was converted to a dining room and conference center for one day giving trustees a beautiful view of the downtown skyline. While a team of staff from the University, USA Children's and Women's and USAMC worked on the decorations and the menu for the meal, the bulk of the kudos go to Steve Lancaster, Director of Food and Nutrition at USAMC and Philip Gore of USAC&W, along with Tom Ward of USAMC and Melissa Hoseman of USAC&W. Their final product was a setting to be admired and a meal to be remembered.

Pictured below are Gore and Lancaster, left to right.


Special guests for the lunch was Brad Cox and his son Josh. Cox is a fireman for the City of Mobile and also serves as Chief of the Dauphin Island Volunteer Fire Department. He was severely burned fighting a fire on Dauphin Island and spent several weeks as a patient at USAMC. He spoke of his experience while being treated here and gave a glowing commendation of our physicians and employees.

Following the lunch, trustees and administration officials were given a tour of the hospital with newly renovated areas being the focus. Physicians and departmental managers gave brief presentations to the visitors about our services and successes.

USAMC PRACTICES EVACUATION

Fire trucks and emergency vehicles lined the front drive of USA Medical Center as the hospital, in cooperation with local agencies, conducted a drill of evacuating the hospital.

Mobile Fire Rescue, Mobile County Health Department, the Mobile Police Department, the local office of the American Red Cross, and Life Guard Ambulance Service participated in the drill. Representatives from the University's Environmental Safety Department and USA Children's and Women's Hospital also joined to serve as observers and evaluators.

At 9 a.m, the hospital activated its disaster plan and alerted the staff via various means. Department heads were asked to assemble in the Boardroom where they learned that the hospital had been "flooded" and an evacuation was required.



This drill, which was planned for several months, was conducted to see what would be required to move patients from a tall building without the availability of elevators. Recent events in Joplin Missouri reinforced the notion that evacuation is a very real possibility for hospitals and made the drill take on a more serious note.

In order to make sure no real patients were placed in any danger, an "ICU" was created in the east solarium of the 7th floor using patient simulators borrowed from USA's College of Health Sciences. These mannequins are capable of simulating vital signs, being intubated and producing crisis situations that require intervention.

Patients were moved using two different methods: one was using a Stokes basket, a wire frame basket into which the "patient" is placed and the second, a Med Sled. The Med Sled is a semi-rigid plastic sheet that is placed under the patient then rolls up on the edges to enclose the patient. Web straps secure the patient and serve as handles. Another strap is used to allow one person to safely lower the patient down the stairs.








The Stokes basket was lowered using a rope attached to the top of the stairwell and was performed by members of the Mobile Fire-Rescue Department's Tactical Rescue team. Hospital staff used the Med Sled devices which were recently acquired by hospitals in the Mobile area.

Leading the effort by the MFRD was District Chief Leann Tacon. Tacon expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the exercise, citing the lessons learned by the event. She also pointed out that USAMC is the only hospital in the area which has conducted such a drill.

Scott Taylor, USAMC's disaster preparedness coordinator also commented on the success of the event. "We learned many valuable lessons today. We had participation by every department in the hospital. Especially noteworthy is the involvement of the nurses from the critical care units. They were responsible for setting up the "patients" and they are the ones who actually moved them down the stairs."

Hospitals are required by accreditation standards to conduct at least two drills per year and to include other agencies in at least one drill.

For more pictures of the events, go to HERE.