USNS COMFORT (T-AH 20) Surgical Services Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in New York City
Abstract
USNS COMFORT deployment New York city: The U.S. Navy Medicine response to the COVID-19 pandemic is the first time a hospital ship has been deployed to address an infectious disease outbreak. The hospital ships, USNS COMFORT (T-AH20) and USNSMERCY (T-AH 19), were primarily designed as a trauma platform but have been deployed frequently and successfully for global humanitarian assistance and disaster response.1 The USNS COMFORT (T-AH20) was activated from a maintenance period and in less than 7 days arrived in New York City (NYC) on March 30, 2020.The USNS COMFORT (T-AH 20) is a converted oil tanker. She is 894 feet long and the flight deck sits 75 feet above the waterline. The hospital ship has twelve operating rooms including 1interventional radiology suite, a blood bank, pharmacy, and a central sterile processing department. The radiology department has four xray rooms and a computed tomography scanner. Within the 1000 bed capability of the hospital ship, 80 are configured for critical care.2 Eleven of these intensive care unit (ICU)beds are isolated in a negative pressure room. The remaining ICU beds are split into open bays with 20 to 23 in each ICU. The remaining beds are in 8 open bay wards that hold 110 to 120 patients in a bunk bed configuration and are ideal for what military triage would term walking wounded.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 24, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1105833
Entities
People
- Brian Weimerskirch
- Eric Liedtke
- Ian Uber
- Joseph Dougherty
- Kevis Pinkos
- Mark A. Johnson
- Stephen Bronaugh
- Tamara Worlton
Organizations
- Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences