Many customers who come to us for an interim CT lease do not have the necessary site requirements to park or run mobile units. It is unfortunate that when a hospital is designed, a proper pad and power for mobile units is not always in the plans. We consistently find a way to make it work.
Power is the biggest issue that can cause nightmare situations; if not preplanned and built to specs. Without proper power a generator must be rented locally and ran 24/7 to keep the unit ready for operation. Generators emit fumes and noise while running. This can disturb patients or nearby homes. The cost of gas for around the clock operation can wreak havoc on any budget. If you run out of gas everything comes to a halt. Patients are not getting treated and the OEM may have to come onsite to make sure the sudden power dropout did not damage the unit. One of our sites running on generator recently called us when the generator quit running and a patient was on the trailer. We talked them through manually opening the rollup door and running the patient lift on battery power to get the patient safely out of the mobile.
The next issue hospitals face is location. Where do you park a fifty foot semi-truck trailer so that patients and staff can access it easily and power can be connected? The ideal pad is a cement one with a slight slope for drainage. We have successfully parked on broken asphalt and even dirt, but the trailers level can go off as the unit settles into the soft surface.
So now that I have told you the nightmares let me tell you about my dream site. We recently rented to a site that had a cement pad with power available right at the side of the pad. The patient access was designed so that they came out directly adjacent to the mobiles lift. Then the coup de grace! The building was U shaped around the pad so the wind did not buffet the unit or patients coming out to it. The only thing that I could dream of to make this the ultimate design would be an A frame roof covering the pad to keep out rain and snow.
What can I say I dream of unusual things?
