HB3387 HD1

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	3387
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008		H.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The State has the responsibility of protecting and serving its communities by providing appropriate medical services during an emergency in a timely manner. The significance of this responsibility has been demonstrated repeatedly during Hawaii's hurricane seasons, earthquakes, flash floods, tsunamis, sudden horrific tragedies such as the Sacred Falls landslide, the collision and sinking of the Ehime Maru sea vessel, and evacuations of schools due to hazardous materials conditions.

A mobile emergency hospital unit can respond to crisis situations and provide instant on-site medical attention, including emergency medical care, surgical trauma, critical care, and anesthesia. A mobile emergency hospital unit can serve as a "surge hospital", designed to respond to surges in numbers of patients during emergencies, or as a stand-alone quarantine facility capable of providing 14 general medical beds, expandable to accommodate as many as several hundred patients when a tenting system is in place. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, more than 7,000 patients were served by a mobile emergency hospital unit set up in a parking lot in Waveland, Mississippi, for seven weeks when the existing local health care infrastructure was destroyed.

A mobile emergency hospital unit can also serve as a quarantine facility in the event of a hazardous materials attack, pandemic, avian flu outbreak, or any disaster-related outbreak requiring quarantine. In addition to serving as a medical resource during emergencies and disasters, a mobile emergency hospital unit can also provide primary care and necessary health care infrastructure to communities lacking medical resources in parts of the islands where current needs have already been identified, including Kahuku, Puna, and other areas.

As a mobile emergency department and hospital on wheels, such a unit can be transported to various sites and airlifted between islands via military transport airplanes. A mobile emergency hospital unit can provide a mobile support trailer stocked with essential medical supplies and equipment, as well as living and sleeping quarters for a team of health care providers who can travel with the unit. Hawaii's isolation requires sufficient and immediate emergency medical response from within the state until support from the mainland or elsewhere arrives. A mobile emergency hospital unit would afford the people of Hawaii immediate access to medical resources during a natural or man-made disaster.

The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds for the department of defense to begin necessary preparations to establish a mobile emergency hospital unit.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2008-2009 for the department of defense to begin necessary preparations to establish a mobile emergency hospital unit in cooperation with the department of health as a shared resource between the department of defense and the department of health, based on the need for a comprehensive natural and man-made disaster response plan.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of defense for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on January 1, 2050.