For the second time in its history, Atlanta-based Grady Memorial Hospital is putting a mobile emergency department in its parking lot to brace for an uptick in flu cases, NBC-affiliate TV station WXIA reports.
The unit will be in the hospital's parking lot Jan. 16.
The hospital is contracting with Charlotte, N.C.-based Atrium Health's Carolinas MED-1 mobile ED. The mobile hospital is fully staffed with medical supplies, physicians, nurses, medical technicians and support staff, according to the Independent Tribune.
Equipment includes a digital X-ray, ultrasound, lab, pharmacy, 14 acute care beds and a two-bed operating room.
In the last flu season, physicians working in Grady's mobile ED saw about 1,000 flu patients in the first nine days of the facility's opening.