Determining Hospital Ship (T-AH) Staffing Requirements for Humanitarian Assistance Missions

The primary mission of the hospital ship is to provide acute medical and surgical services to forces ashore and afloat during military operations. In addition, the hospital ship also has the mission of providing a hospital asset in support of disaster relief (DR) and humanitarian assistance (HA) operations. This secondary mission requires the hospital ship to provide medical care to a different population with a set of medical conditions not common to combat casualty care, thus affecting the manning requirements. To better plan the medical response to HA/DR scenarios, knowledge of the mission requirements and the anticipated patient workload is required. With this information the appropriate mix of personnel, supplies and equipment can be projected. The goals of this project were to gather subject matter expert (SME) data, medical treatment data, and medical mission support information to determine the optimal staffing mix (military/civilian, nongovernmental organization) aboard the hospital ship during HA/DR missions. Information from a variety of sources was used to better understand humanitarian missions conducted by the hospital ship. Factors such as time on site, security threats, and location characterize the mission. Patient encounter data from previous missions were used to determine expected patient conditions encountered in various HA operations. Support task information was gathered from subject matter experts. These data points were used to project the medical and support tasks required for future missions. The authors conclude that, to conduct a successful HA mission on a hospital ship caring for surgical patients, outpatients ashore, and capacity-building activities, a minimum staff of 228 medical and 288 nonmedical personnel would be required. Humanitarian missions accomplish more than just the number of patients seen -- effective HA helps host nations build their health care infrastructure so that they can become self-sufficient.

Sponsored in part by the Navy Medicine Support Command, Jacksonville, FL. The original document contains color images.