State Medical Assistance Team sets up at O'berry
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on October 6, 2016 12:52 PM
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Full SizeThe Wake Forest Baptist Health State Medical Assistance Team set up a Medical Support Shelter in building 502 at the O'Berry Center today to provide Wayne County with additional medical resources as Hurricane Matthew approaches.
Corey Roberts, the commander of the team, said the office of North Carolina Emergency Management made the decision to deploy the support shelter to Goldsboro.
The team at O'Berry is the only one currently deployed in the state, he said.
"We got the call on Tuesday morning that we would be tasked with deploying the assets of setting up the shelter in Goldsboro," Roberts said.
The Medical Support Shelter is not designed or used to replace immediate or hospital care, but is used for medically fragile patients that need long term care.
Roberts said the shelter will be used for any patient needing long term care or assisted living patients, and will be stocked with supplies for treating a wide array of chronic medical needs.
"It will not be used just for people who need a place to sleep or get medical care," Roberts said. "It is not replacing hospital care."
Roberts said the center has also not yet been staffed.
"Our task was to set up the logistical operations of the medical support shelter, and two other teams will provide staffing for the shelter," Roberts said. "That call (whether or not to staff the shelter) will be made some time Saturday."
Roberts said his team is one of eight available in the state, and is the only one currently deployed. The other two teams that could be used to staff the medical support shelter will be drawn from the remaining seven teams.
There is also a chance the team could be deployed elsewhere, but it is more likely another team that has not yet been called on would be deployed, he said.
"It takes so long to set up and deploy our assets that they would probably deploy another team," Roberts said. "If we were to be deployed elsewhere, they would deploy another team ahead of us and tell us to pack our things up and get ready to go elsewhere."
Wake Forest Baptist Health SMAT teams are also able to deploy field medical stations, none of which have been deployed yet.
Julia Jarema, spokesperson for the North Carolina Emergency Operations Center, said the state is readying ambulance strike teams and other resources in case the effects of Hurricane Matthew cause severe damages and public health risks.
One of those resources is a mobile hospital with 400 beds that can be broken up into separate units of 50 beds to be deployed wherever necessary.
"The forecast today is drastically different than it was a few days ago," Jarema said. "We are staging resources in different places so they can respond as quickly as possible."