CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Naval Hospital transported 16 patients from their old location to the new hospital Dec. 14.
The hospital has been transferring their services to the new location over a two week period. Now that all of the patients have been moved there are no longer any services being provided at the old hospital.
“The move went according to schedule,” said Navy Cmdr. Billy McCarty, the chief of medical staff at the hospital. “We started promptly at 7 a.m. and we executed the delivery of patients according to plan,” said Navy Cmdr. Billy McCarty, the chief of medical staff at the hospital.”
Emergency medical technicians were escorted through the hospital to pick up patients, who were put into ambulances and transported to the new hospital. The movement of patients took approximately three and a half hours.
“The move went quite smoothly,” said Navy Cmdr. Dale Ramirez, the director of branch clinics and the officer-in-charge of the new location during the two-week transition. “A lot of planning and preparation has gotten us to this point and we were able to safely move our patients without any hiccups.”
The hospital conducted patient relocation drills on Nov. 15 to practice moving their patients. The practice run was critical because it allowed the staff to identify issues and fins solutions according to Ramirez.
“The training was crucial; everything we prepped for is what we did today,” said McCarty. “Going through the steps, knowing what we needed, projections of how many patients we would need to transfer; the preparation was needed for today to run as smoothly as it did.”
The patients, as well as the staff are excited to be a part of the news hospital, according to Ramirez.
“I have received a lot of feedback from our patients,” said Ramirez. “People are so enamored by the beauty of this building. There was one patient I spoke to who had PTSD and he said ‘when I look at this place I think of a place that is peaceful’, he said he usually goes to a hospital and instantly wants to leave, but he comes here and feels better. I am excited to know that the care we already provide to our patients will be intensified because we now have this state of the art hospital.”