HackensackUMC and the EMS Task Force to Deploy the New Jersey MSED Assets to Long Beach Medical Center

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Hackensack University Medical Center

Nov 19, 2012, 04:18 ET

HACKENSACK, N.J., Nov. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Since Hurricane Sandy struck the region, Hackensack University Medical Center has been providing emergency assistance to numerous communities throughout the state. Specifically, it has deployed the New Jersey Mobile Satellite Emergency Department (NJ-MSED) units to Bergen, Hudson, Ocean and Somerset counties, in conjunction with the NJ-EMS Task Force. On Monday, November 19, HackensackUMC, in partnership with the State of New Jersey, will deploy the NJ-MSED, two specialized units embedded into the New Jersey EMS Task Force, to Long Beach Medical Center in Long Beach, NY.

Due to extensive flooding damage experienced by Long Beach Medical Center, it filed a formal request for the NJ-MSED units through Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), a national state-to-state mutual aid system that allows states to share resources across state lines during disasters and emergencies. HackensackUMC will send a team to provide Just-in-Time training for medical, information technology and plant operations staff.

Prior NJ-MSED deployments in conjunction with the state's EMS Task Force include: Hillsborough, NJ on October 29; Ocean Medical Center in Brick, NJ on November 1; and Jersey City Medical Center on November 12. A NJ-MSED unit was also deployed to HackensackUMC's main campus in Hackensack, NJ.

The NJ-MSED vehicles, a breakthrough in medicine and cutting-edge technology, are one of only a few mobile medical assets of their kind in the nation, funded through a unique partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense and the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI). The core of the NJ-MSED complex exists in the form of two 43-foot trailers and a 48-foot trailer with expandable sides. Two are fully outfitted with: seven critical care beds, each having monitor defibrillator capability; portable digital X-ray unit; telemedicine capability; portable field laboratory; small pharmaceutical cache; overhead medical procedure lighting; and onboard medical gases. One is outfitted as a mobile operating room. They are rapidly deployable, fully-functional acute care mobile medical assets. In addition to the patient care capabilities, the system includes multiple, redundant communications capabilities, including a robust V-Sat system capable of providing telephone, internet and video.

About Hackensack University Medical Center
HackensackUMC, a non-profit teaching and research hospital located in Bergen County, New Jersey, is the largest provider of inpatient and outpatient services in the state, and home to the only Level II Trauma Center in the county. This 775-bed facility has gone beyond traditional thinking by creating an entire campus of care, including: the Heart & Vascular Hospital, the John Theurer Cancer Center, the Joseph M. Sanzari Children's Hospital, and the Donna A. Sanzari Women's Hospital. As a result of using science and creativity to push medicine further, HackensackUMC was listed as the number one hospital in New Jersey and one of the top four New York metro area hospitals by the U.S. News & World Report, and has received nine national rankings in: Cancer; Cardiology & Heart Surgery; Ear, Nose & Throat; Gastroenterology; Geriatrics; Neurology & Neurosurgery; Orthopedics; Urology; and the Joseph M. Sanzari Children's Hospital ranked as one of the Top 25 Best Children's Hospitals for Neurology and Neurosurgery in the 2012-13 Best Children's Hospitals list. The medical center has also been named one of the Truven Health Analytics 100 Top Hospitals® and one of America's 50 Best Hospitals by HealthGrades®. It is listed among the Leapfrog Top Hospitals List, received 18 Gold Seals of Approval™ by the Joint Commission, and is listed as one of the 50 Best Hospitals in America by Becker's Hospital Review. It was the first hospital in New Jersey and second in the nation to become a Magnet® recognized hospital for nursing excellence. The medical center is the Hometown Hospital of the New York Giants and the New York Red Bulls, and remains committed to its community through fundraising and community events. To learn more about one of the nation's 50 best hospitals, visit: www.HackensackUMC.org.

SOURCE Hackensack University Medical Center