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Infection Control in Field Hospitals after a Natural Disaster: Lessons Learned after the 2010 Earthquake in Haiti

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Paola Lichtenberger ,
Ian N. Miskin ,
Gordon Dickinson ,
Mitchell J. Schwaber ,
Omer E. Ankol ,
Marcus Zervos ,
Rafael E. Campo ,
Susanne Doblecki-Lewis ,
Mark Alain Déry  and
L. Silvia Munoz-Price
Paola Lichtenberger
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida Miami Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, Miami, Florida
Ian N. Miskin
Affiliation:
Israel Defense Force Medical Corps Field Hospital, Tel Aviv, Israel Tel Hashomer, Clalit Health Services, Jerusalem District, Tel Aviv, Israel Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Israel
Gordon Dickinson
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida Miami Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, Miami, Florida
Mitchell J. Schwaber
Affiliation:
Israel Defense Force Medical Corps Field Hospital, Tel Aviv, Israel Division of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel National Center for Infection Control, Israel Ministry of Health, Tel Aviv, Israel
Omer E. Ankol
Affiliation:
Israel Defense Force Medical Corps Field Hospital, Tel Aviv, Israel Army Health Branch, Israel Defense Force Medical Corps, Tel Aviv, Israel Department of Health Management, School of Health Sciences, Ariel University Center of Samaria, Ariel, Tel Aviv, Israel
Marcus Zervos
Affiliation:
Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, Michigan Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan
Rafael E. Campo
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida
Susanne Doblecki-Lewis
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida
Mark Alain Déry
Affiliation:
Tulane University School of Medicine, Infectious Diseases Section, New Orleans, Louisiana
L. Silvia Munoz-Price*
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, Florida
*
Division of Infectious Diseases, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, 1611 Northwest 12th Avenue, Park Plaza West L-302, Miami, FL 33136 (smunozprice@med.miami.edu)
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Abstract

After the January 12, 2010, earthquake in Haiti, Project Medishare and the University of Miami organized, built, and staffed a 200-bed field hospital (the University of Miami Hospital in Haiti [UMHH] ) on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. We describe the operational challenges of providing a safe environment at the UMHH. Furthermore, we compared how these issues were addressed at this ad hoc hospital with how they were addressed at the field hospital of the Israel Defense Force, a fully deployable hospital with an organization fine-tuned as a result of prior disaster situations, also in Haiti.

Type
Commentaries
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 31 , Issue 9 , September 2010 , pp. 951 - 957
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2010

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References

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