Posted by Amie Genest in Specification Review: Nightingale-class Cruiser (Medical) - Review OPEN Until October 24, 2020

Posted by Nathan Miller in Specification Review: Nightingale-class Cruiser (Medical) - Review OPEN Until October 24, 2020

Posted by Calé Reilly in Specification Review: Nightingale-class Cruiser (Medical) - Review OPEN Until October 24, 2020
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

<snip>

As someone who works in the Acute Care setting in RL and having been involved in Mass Casualty events, and knowing how big a starship can be, the medical facilities actually seem somewhat small. How much expansion of the medical space is it capable of? Can cargo bays be converted into additional medical space or accommodation for evacuees? Just remembering what it was like during the tornado here many years back. Our 30 bed ER, 24 bed ICU, 12 OR suite, and 200 medical ward bed city hospital was very quickly overwhelmed and we are not even considered a large center.

Amie (aka Casidhe)

That’s a brilliant question! Thank you for asking it.

So the Nightingale was designed as an upgrade to the current Mccoy class. Which you can see here. Mccoy= https://www.star-fleet.com/library/bookshelf/tm/mccoy.html One of the reasons cir this was just as you said the size of it didn’t really make sense for what we were doing and we felt more space was needed to be given to the medical areas in a hospital ship. However Some of the base elements of this design were retained such as the capability of creating more space in the triage areas.

In terms of the medical space the Nightingale does have at the moment: in the primary hull, Deck 5 and 6 are pure medical facility with the primary medical suite etc there. So basically it’s like one giant sickbay that spans two decks not just a section of the deck like in some other starships.

In the secondary hull Deck E has the secondary medical suite. Along with a specially designed Triage deck that
” can be reconfigured using removable and folding bulkheads into an extra triage centre, guest quarters, surgical centre, or additional sickbay facilities, depending on the requirements of the mission. A functional reconfiguration can be performed in approximately ten minutes. The aft section of the deck has Transporter Rooms Three and Four so that wounded can be beamed directly into what can be used as a triage area. Two gangplanks extend through the rear of Deck E to load wounded directly onto the Triage Deck in case of a landing.”

Deck 9 also has crew and guest quarters that could be used if needed and the cargo bays on deck 9 of Primary and Deck C of secondary if really needed could then be converted as would be standard protocol on other ships.

Finally the Nightingale’s medical module states * These prefab modular hospitals can be erected in minutes on planetary surfaces. Each comes with a self-contained emergency fusion generator and emergency replicator. Battery packs included with the generator enable the field hospitals to run for up to one week under normal conditions. They can be deployed either via orbital launch or after the Nightingale performs atmospheric entry and landing procedures.* which could in theory allow for more hospital space to be created on nearby planets etc.

I hope this helps answer your question!

Calé

Focusing on the bed count, as it is really confusing how many patients this ship can see to at once. How many additional bed spaces does converting the Triage Deck to just biobeds add? How many beds are in each of the droppable field hospitals, and how many of the prefab hospitals does the ship carry?

Let’s count current beds. I also think you have the biobed amounts switched between the Primary and Secondary Sickbay in one of the following sections:

CREW SUPPORT SYSTEMS

Medical Center

“Well Bones, do the new medical facilities meet with your approval?” ~ Kirk
“They do not. It’s like working in a damn computer centre” ~ McCoy (Star Trek: TMP)

The Nightingale sports two main Medical Suites rather than the standard ship sickbay facilities. It also has the ability to create more emergency clinic space should the need arise and dependant on the mission.

The Primary Medical Suite (Primary Sickbay) is situated on Decks 5 and 6.
It features two access points (port and stern) with aseptic entry lobbies, central controlled section isolation doors and is equipped with holo-emitters for the usage of the Medical Hologram System.

The Primary Medical Suite is equipped with biohazard support, radiation treatment wards, surgical ward, critical care, null-gravity treatment, isolation suites, three dedicated surgical suites and six biobeds in the adjacent surgical intensive care area.

The main ICU of 8 biobeds, and four completely quarantined units, capable of supporting class M or K environments, temperatures ranging from -40 degrees Celsius to 100 degrees Celsius, and providing over a dozen different possible atmospheres.

The Convalescent/Recovery Ward of 10 biobeds is also located here.

The Primary Suite includes the Chief of Staff’s Office, and a medical staff ready room alongside their small personal laboratory, the Head Nurses Office and nursing station alongside a Reception Centre/Waiting Area and four standard biobeds. It also hosts an obstetrics area.

Deck 6 hosts a Dental Suite to round out the Primary Medical Centre. Also adjacent are extensive medical research, biochemical and analysis labs.

A dedicated Psychiatry and Counselling Suite is located on Deck 7 to create a more comprehensive medical treatment environment.

The Secondary Medical Suite is on Deck E.

It houses the Assistant Medical Officer’s Office and provides a larger primary care area (15 biobeds), another two dedicated emergency surgical suites, and six biobeds in the adjacent surgical care area. The Morgue and Cryogenic Stasis labs also are located in this area.

^ Here it states Secondary Medical has 15 biobeds.

Finally, the Secondary suite has a physical therapy section complete with gym and therapeutic baths.

The walls of all medical dedicated areas are decorated with an atypical palette outside of the Starfleet issue blue and grey combination

As in all medical class ships all sickbay facilities use independent environmental systems to eliminate the risk of ship-wide contamination.

Medical areas further detailed (Both, Primary [P] and Secondary [S])

Convalescence/ Recovery Ward [P]
This area is for patients who have received treatment, or require overnight treatment and/or monitoring. This is also where non-critical patients are placed after surgery. It includes 10 biobeds with overhead monitors, sanitized pillows and sheets for each bed, one replicator, and a supply storage cabinet close by.

Primary Care Unit [Both]
This area is for general treatment including basic injury, common diseases, and anything else that doesn’t look to be particularly life-threatening or contagious. Primary Sickbay includes 15 scanning biobeds, Secondary Sickbay includes 8.

^ Here it states 8.

Intensive Care Unit / Surgical Intensive Care Unit [Both]

There is no mention of an ICU or Surgical ICU in the above description of the Secondary Sickbay. Does it contain 8 biobeds like the Primary Sickbay?

Each biobed is rigged for continuous 3-dimensional scanning and monitoring of the patient. It includes a computer link-up to an alarm system programmed to react and respond to the patient’s life-signs with adjustable acceptable parameters. An unstable reading or life sign will result in a “Code Blue” alarm and engage code blue protocols. At this time the computer will auto engage digital resuscitation and life support until a medical officer is present. If one does not respond within an acceptable time frame, normally 3 minutes the EMH programme will respond. It also includes one replicator, additional life support hardware for each bed and back-up battery power.

Primary Sickbay ICU also, as stated, houses four completely quarantined units, capable of supporting class M or K environments, temperatures ranging from -40 degrees Celsius to 98 degrees Celsius, and providing over a dozen different possible atmospheres.

Medlabs [Both]
Includes one replicator, material diagnostics stations, a centrifuge, gene analysis terminal, stasis field drawers for storage of biological samples.

Surgical Suites [Both]
Along with the usual surgical tools, the room includes a surgical frame biobed complete with mobile life support equipment, atmospheric isolation systems, and scanning/monitoring readout station. The room also has access to a small replicator designed for pharmaceuticals, equipment or other materials such as replacement organs or blood.

Morgue [S]
Contains stasis field storage slots for several bodies, a table for post-mortem examinations rigged for continuous 3-dimensional scanning and monitoring of the corpse and aseptic entries.

Dental Suite [P]
Designed in greys and blacks it is a more muted copy of the Psychiatric Suite. Four closed offices with dental chairs and individual replicators encircle a computer-operated reception centre/waiting area. (Staffed by ALBERT)

Triage Deck [S]
Deck G is configured as a large, open area, with limited storage facilities for removable bulkheads. This “Triage Deck” can be reconfigured using removable and folding bulkheads into an extra triage centre, guest quarters, surgical centre, or additional sickbay facilities, depending on the requirements of the mission. A functional reconfiguration can be performed in approximately ten minutes. The aft section of the deck has Transporter Rooms Three and Four so that wounded can be beamed directly into what can be used as a triage area. Two gangplanks extend through the rear of Deck E to load wounded directly onto the Triage Deck in case of a landing.

That gives us a count of:

Beds	Location
6	surgical ICU
8	main ICU
10	recovery
4	primary suite
15	primary sickbay primary care
8	secondary sickbay primary care

That’s a total of 51 beds; 65 if we allow the potential for another 8 ICU beds/6 surgical ICU beds in the secondary sickbay. These areas occupy decks 5, 6, and E. There’s obviously more stuff there than just biobeds, but quarters+extras for 450 crew also occupy 3 decks. If the Triage Deck adds approximately an additional deck’s worth based on the previous count, we’re looking at around another 20 beds.

I agree that this just feels like too few beds; and I realize you’re basing it on McCoy, but maybe they had too few beds, too. It feels like any time you arrive somewhere, the Triage Deck would have to be set back up as additional space, because you’ll run out of beds rather quickly; and even then that feels small. I feel like a hospital ship should be able to see more than 85 patients without converting non-medical spaces. I don’t know that I know what the correct number is, either; as an example, though, the 272m US Navy Mercy-class hospital ships have beds for 1,000 patients on 6 decks. That might be excessive lol.

In general, I think the number of beds needs to be cleared up/clarified, even if they stay exactly the same - what is the difference between the “primary suite” with 4 biobeds, and the “primary care” area of the Primary Sickbay with 15 biobeds, for example (both are in the text I included above)?

Nathan

Thanks Nathan, that was pretty much exactly what I was getting at. The ability to erect hospital structures in the field certainly adds to the capacity in a way I hadn’t accounted for. For an example, field hospitals erected in large cities to cope with Covid had capacities of up to 250 beds along with surgical facilities. Some military field hospitals had capacities of over 400 patients at one time.

Amie

We will clarify the wording because I can see how it could be confusing. As for bed numbers, that’s an easy amendment. The decks where the crew quarters are on are large so it’s a very flexible arrangement number wise and we have wiggle-room here to adjust. I think part of it was from a previous version where we had the Primary and Secondary Sickbays swapped and that text cleanup got missed, so good catch!

Thank you for your input! We really appreciate people getting involved.

~Linds