The Chief does not arrive until May 17th, however, he has tasked me to make sure the Medical Maintenance/Biomed section gets setup properly. He and I have been talking on the phone, emailing, and texting about what needs to be set up for us to conduct our part of the mission here at Fort Hunter Liggett (FHL). The advantage of being in a fixed facility is that everything is already in place; there is a place to work, forms, processes, tools etc, etc. Here in the field it is a bit different.
When we first hit the ground at FHL, the command decided not to put up the Med Maintenance ISO (trailer) for our team. I am the only Biomed out here currently and they weren't sure of the necessity of the ISO for one soldier. The ISO not only has all of the test equipment we need to support the hospital, it also has the power power, gas, and water requirements for testing such equipment. The Chief let me know that in order for us to perform our duties during the mission, we will need the ISO setup. Which brings me to the command knowing my name.
The request to setup the ISO came after 90% of the hospital was complete. So the Med Maintenance area will be disconnected from the hospital but in close physical proximity. A change like this obviously gets noticed by the command so now they definitely have their eye on me. But I am not upset or bothered by it. I think it is a good opportunity to show the importance of the BIomed function in the field.
For example, I worked with one of the senior RST MED personnel and they showed me a lot about the field equipment that gets placed in the hospital. When I say Field equipment, I know that can be confusing. So let me clarify that the equipment is setup inside a physical "building". It is considered field equipment because it is meant to be used in a mobile hospital. The equipment is tested to make sure it performs as expected in deployment conditions.
Today I worked on some equipment that I don't get to see or work on back home. The piece we worked on today was a new portable x-ray unit. The new unit was sent to us from the research and development team at Fort Sam Houston. The Combat Support Hospital (CSH) here at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Schoonover and FOB Ward are testing it over the next week to see how it works for the clinical and maintenance teams. Our testing today was mostly playing with the unit and seeing how it moved around the hospital. I will get to perform some maintenance tests on it tomorrow or later in the week (here or at FOB Ward) to see how I like it from a maintenance perspective.
After playing with the portable x-ray, I went with the RST MED staff to FOB Ward to look at some items there. We repaired a sink that had some leaky faucets and valves. We even found a bug in the system....literally!! (see pic below. I know a sink is not a very glamorous piece of equipment, but I enjoyed working on it. Next, I sat through an in-service on the Big Bertha sterilizers. I have seen and kinda worked on one before but this was my first time setting it up and then learning the ins-and-outs.
That was the fun part of the day. Later in the day, I had to review the SOP for the med maint area and let the Chief know I reviewed the document. Tomorrow (or later in the week) I will be in servicing the clinical areas on the SOP for med maintenance. All said, it was a fun, busy, and tiring day.
Off to the showers and bed!!
Love,
Becky
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