55th Medical Group officially opens high tech SIM Lab

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Carly A. Costello
  • 55th Wing Public Affairs
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. --  The 55th Medical Group officially opened its high tech medical treatment simulation laboratory on June 7.

The simulation lab, which took two years to complete, consists of two patient treatment rooms that resemble hospital emergency rooms with interactive manikins where the medical group can practice patient care exercises for trauma and emergency situations.

"Having simulation labs like this are really important, so when emergencies do occur, our medical professionals can respond accordingly," said Amanda Meyers, 55th MDG Life Support training manager. "They will be more comfortable when emergencies do arise."

To simulate the emergency scenarios, the lab has five patient manikins, two adults, one of which is a SimMan 3G, one child, one baby and one infant.

"SimMan 3G is one of the most advanced medical simulation tools on the market," said U.S. Air Force Col. David Roll, 55th MDG chief nurse. "They are completely wireless and have Bluetooth capabilities."

The other four manikins have to be hardwired to a computer and do not perform all the same function as the SimMan 3G such as sweating.

These manikins are synced with a computer and controlled by a training instructor in the facility's audio visual room. The instructor can input commands into the computer to have to manikins talk, bleed and respond to treatments, just like a human would.

"SimMan 3G has preprogrammed verbal responses and bodily sounds," Roll said. "The instructor can speak through the patient by using a headset microphone device, creating a more realistic learning experience. It allows the trainer inside the booth to get the manikins to talk, give verbal complaints like I am having chest pain, they can cry, so we can simulate a real patient in an emergency type setting."

In the treatment rooms, the team of emergency medical professionals will treat the manikin patient just like they would a human. They are able to administer drugs, intravenous therapy and chest compressions to the manikin, just to name a few, and the manikins will respond based on the treatments.

Everything that happens in the treatment rooms is recorded via audio and video so after the exercise, the instructors and students can review the scenario during a debrief.

In the last year, this simulation lab has provided medical personnel with 5,000 training hours, which saved the MDG approximately $103,000 by allowing the Ehrling Bergquest Clinic to train its personnel in house instead of sending them to other simulation labs outside the local area.

The MDG plans to eventually open the facility to any Team Offutt member who wants practice in an emergency situation, especially those getting ready to deploy and want to practice self-aid buddy care.

"We want anybody and everybody who wants to use this to come down," Meyers said. "This includes our EMTs and fire departments."

The facility has already been used by local community EMTs such as the Bellevue Fire Department.

"It's going to benefit more than just the clinic population," Meyers said. "It's really going to be something that a wide range of people are going to be able to utilize."