U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona will come to Texas A&M Wednesday to attend a presentation to view SURGE, which consists of hospital projects designed by A&M College of Architecture students in conjunction with the A&M University System Health Science Center and the Office of Homeland Security.
A SURGE hospital is a place that can handle a surge of casualties or patients in a natural or man-made disaster, said George J. Mann, the Ronald L. Skaggs Endowed professor of health facilities design at the College of Architecture. Located around the country, SURGE hospitals can quickly be converted from an existing facility, such as a convention center or hotel or high school, to a self-sustaining hospital in time of emergency.
Dr. Paul K. Carlton, director of the A&M University System Health Science Center Office of Homeland Security, came up with the SURGE hospital concept and worked with the 36 architecture students to create 17 designs.
“My charge to them was to create cost-affordable, dual-use SURGE hospitals that could be used as a hospital equivalent in an hour or two,” Carlton said. “(The SURGE hospitals) had to be affordable, and they had to be in structures used every day.”
Mann said that working with Carlton has been an enormous learning opportunity for our architecture students.
“They have been working on the major national issue in architecture for health, i.e. the challenge of how to handle a surge of mass casualties in disaster situations,” Mann said.
Josh Cogburn, a junior environmental design major who co-designed the project “Central Texas ‘SURGE’ Hospital,” said some of the designs consist of entirely new constructions while others utilize additions to existing buildings.
“The project allowed us to explore and to be creative in solving the problems,” Cogburn said.
Amy Breithaupt, a senior architecture major, helped design the project “Adapting the Greater Boston Area Convention Center into a SURGE Hospital.”
“I’m glad our ideas are being put out there and that we are making a difference in the profession,” Breithaupt said. “It’s a really new concept that hasn’t been dealt with before.”
Carlton said the surgeon general will also look at technological innovations presented by private companies and to hear updates made by government authorities from all levels.
Craig Stevens, spokesman for the surgeon general, said Carmona is looking forward talking to participants at the conference about improving America’s hospital surge capacity.
“President Bush and Heath and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson have commanded an unprecedented amount, in excess of four billion dollars, to improve state and hospital response since 9/11. Now states and communities need to work together with the federal government to ensure that the funding is used effectively to provide protection and care for citizens,” he said.