Field hospitals present an attractive solution for Emergency Medical Teams due to their portability and ease of assembly, yet are generally designed to be temporary, often leading to a gap until permanent facilities are restored after a sudden-onset disaster.

The objective of this paper is to understand the duration of field hospitals deployed to the 2010 Haiti Earthquake, identify the time taken to re-open permanent facilities, and propose approaches to better address this gap.

Following a review of field hospital typologies and standards, a comparative study was conducted of five key field hospitals deployed to Haiti. Quantitative data from in-house reports, limited available studies, and mapping exercises were complemented with qualitative findings through interviews with key personnel. Additional data were collected for another 21 field hospitals, confirming the rough duration of 26 of the total 44 field hospitals deployed for Haiti. This was compared against information available on the re-opening of major permanent health care facilities.

The results indicated most field hospitals were decommissioned after two-to-six months. Some semi-permanent facilities opened in their wake, but not until 18-24 months. Permanent facilities started re-opening after approximately four years, however the main 500 bed hospital did not fully re-open until almost 10 years after the disaster.

Provision of more durable, semi-permanent structures during early relief stages could better capture the initial funding impulse as well as reduce the gap of bed numbers as field hospitals reach the limit of their viable lifespan, lasting until more permanent facilities are re-opened often many years later.

Tables and Figures (optional)

Among all health care workers, EMTs have played a notable role during COVID-19; working as a frontline, they faced many challenges, including working overload and an extremely cautious environment that requires a rapid and precise response, which led to experiencing higher severity of mental health symptoms.

To explore the association between stress and burnout among EMTs while working during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A cross-sectional quantitative study with a descriptive design. It was conducted from March-April 2021 on 280 Spanish EMTs, using an online survey of 42 items about workload and working conditions during COVID-19 and other variables specific to COVID-19. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), and Pearson’s correlation coefficient were used to determine the relationships between the variables.

The study revealed a moderate positive correlation between the perceived level of stress and burnout among the EMTs. Specifically, findings showed a strong positive correlation between stress and EE (0.62) and a moderate positive correlation with DP (0.48). However, it found a moderate negative correlation between the level of stress and the third subdimension of burnout, PA (0.45), where the increase in the stress level correlated with a decrease in PA of the EMTs.

Burnout might be related to the persistent stress of the EMTs working during the COVID-19 pandemic, considering their work conditions and the socio-demographic variables. The mental health of the first responders is crucial, as it influences their achievement and works satisfaction, and it might affect the quality of the service they provide.

Tables and Figures (optional)

Table 1.

Pearson Correlation: Correlation between the Stress and Burnout among the Emergency Medical Technicians (n = 280)

Disaster responders operate in situations that are cognitively, emotionally, and morally distressing. The prevalence of mental health sequelae amongst disaster responders is well-documented. The World Health Organization (WHO) has published minimum standards for Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs), which requires them to assess the mental health and psychosocial support needs of their patients and staff, provide first aid, and ensure referral pathways for follow-up care are available. Specific to EMT staff and volunteers, the standards require that support services are always accessible. However, there is no requirement for EMTs to have their own mental health specialists, nor is having a mental health specialist assigned to each team and mission necessarily practical.

This study will assess the existing mental health resources of WHO EMTs and their use of telemedicine in mental health care.

A survey will be distributed to the leadership of all WHO EMTs that are currently credentialed to capture descriptive statistics.

Data expected to be collected and analyzed by October 1, 2022.

The absence of a mental health specialist significantly limits the availability of support services for EMT personnel. Given that the use of telemedicine in both disaster response and mental health services has been well-documented, telemedicine could be a low-resource method to link WHO EMT staff and volunteers with mental health specialists throughout the deployment cycle.

Civil-military collaboration in response to an epidemic or health crisis could strengthen countries’ capacities to provide adequate medical care and limit casualties. Many countries have received the support of military medical services during an emergency,1 guided by their multi-disciplinary human resources, with a strong background in rapid deployment, logistics and trauma management, and the civilian teams with a good capacity in epidemic management.1,2

This study analyzes the determinants of a good civil-military partnership for rapid management of health emergencies on the African continent.

We conducted a systematic review of literature from published (PUBMED, Hinari, and Google Scholar) and grey databases guided by the PRISMA guideline.

A good collaboration requires a formal agreement with a defined institutional anchor structure between the two institutions.1,3 The coordination should remain flexible with the co-leadership of each institution.1,3,4 The roles of all participating teams should be defined at the onset,1-5 and plans instituted based on the type of emergency to enhance cooperation. Both civilian and military teams need to know and understand the approved management protocols. Military health services are better experienced in trauma management, while civilians are more equipped to manage epidemics.1,4 Besides, there is a need for periodic evaluation of patient outcomes, resource management, challenges, and lessons learned after the response.

Civil-military teams jointly responding to emergencies can be challenging but should be built around four defined pillars: collaboration, coordination, capacity building, and evaluation to capitalize on the teams’ strengths.