Determining medical staffing requirements for humanitarian assistance missions.

OBJECTIVE The primary mission of hospital ships is to provide acute medical and surgical services to U.S. forces during military operations. Hospital ships also provide a hospital asset in support of disaster relief and humanitarian assistance (HA) operations. HA missions afford medical care to populations with vastly different sets of medical conditions from combat casualty care, which affects staffing requirements. METHODS Information from a variety of sources was reviewed to better understand hospital ship HA missions. Factors such as time on-site and location shape the mission and underlying goals. RESULTS Patient encounter data from previous HA missions were used to determine expected patient conditions encountered in various HA operations. These data points were used to project the medical staffing required for future missions. CONCLUSIONS Further data collection, along with goal setting, must be performed to accomplish successful future HA missions. Refining staffing requirements allows deployments to accomplish needed HA and effectively reach underserved areas.