Behind the scenes, Airmen help open hospital

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HERO, Afghanistan – Airmen in a medical mentoring team here have been working hard to ensure the successful opening of an Afghan National Army hospital for the past several months.

        The team’s original mission was to mentor their ANA counterparts and teach them the necessary medical skills to treat Afghan military and police members, said Air Force Col. Mike Skidmore, the team’s senior mentor officer and administrator.

        All that changed when the team arrived several months ago, he said. The hospital was 500 days behind schedule and instead of finding equipment and eager ANA medical personnel, the team found an empty, incomplete facility.

        “We had to move from a mentoring mission to a new mindset of equipping the hospital, opening it and then mentoring,” said Air Force Col. (Dr.) Thomas Seay, the senior medical mentor and chief radiologist.

        Most of the state-of-the-art equipment, to include a digital X-ray and digital ultrasound machines, were purchased by the U.S., with some items - like wheel chairs - donated by a non-profit organization based in Canada, he said.

        The hospital itself is one of the most advanced of its kind in the entire southern region of Afghanistan.

        “Phase one of the construction consisted of a $5.6 million, 50-bed main hospital,” said Skidmore.  “It will serve the entire ANA 205th Corps, including four combat brigades, their associated garrison clinics and more than 27,000 ANA soldiers, Afghan National Police and their families. There are two isolation rooms, one trauma room, two operating rooms and an intensive care ward that can accommodate up to six patients.”

        One of the most impressive elements of the project is the water processing plant, he added. It uses a multi-stage process to clean and sterilize water to the standard necessary for hospital conditions and is also being used as a model for future water plants throughout the country.

        Contractors also recently broke ground on phase two, a $2.6 million hospital expansion that will house an additional 50 patients, Skidmore said.

        With the hospital ribbon-cutting held Dec. 15, the mentoring team is now looking forward to starting the job it came to do.

        The team itself is made up of a total of 18 Airmen. There are three doctors, three nurses, three administrators, a radiologist, a pharmacist, a medic, two lab technicians, a pharmacy technician, a radiology technician, a biomedical equipment technician and a logistician.

        Each team member will work with their Afghan counterpart to create a baseline of skills, Dr. Seay said. There will also be a lot of focus on sterilization and sustainment of equipment and resources, he added.

        Together, the team hopes its efforts can help the ANA to rebuild their country and be effective at maintaining peace and security.

        “This is arguably the best ANA hospital in the entire country, given the building, the equipment and the water treatment plant, but the most impressive part of this hospital is its staff,” Skidmore said. “They are incredibly excited and enthusiastic to learn new clinical and managerial techniques in healthcare.”