Powering the Future of Crisis Response

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — May 6, 2019 —The Covid-19 pandemic has placed acute pressure on businesses and organizations across nearly every sector. With many patients needing critical care, healthcare systems worldwide have struggled to meet the increased demand on their facilities. Because the locations of greatest need are an ever-moving target, the most crucial question is this:

How do we provide a safe space – in any location – to provide sanitary testing, consultation, and care to those in need of medical attention?

Synergy Med and Hunt Electric Corporation, along with several project partners, have developed a mobile, multi-functional, self-cleaning containerized solution.

To best address the full range of emergency medical needs, our team designed three unique units. Each model is configured to serve a specific purpose:

• Emergency care
• Testing, triage and outpatient care
• Housing and medical storage

Each container is designed as a stand-alone tool to assist with pandemic response, disaster relief, temporary housing, and other acute needs. The mobile containers can be deployed as needed to ease the widespread pressure on medical infrastructure as it peaks in different locations at different times.

Why Modularized Containers for Emergency Response?

The current pressure on healthcare systems is not one-size-fits-all. One of the greatest benefits of containerized medical spaces is the flexibility they provide to respond to the demands of each individual location:

• When containers of various levels of care are deployed together, the right resources make it to the right place at the right time.
• This scalable solution allows greater or fewer containers to be deployed to a location based on need.
• Pandemic pressure is a moving target; mobile solutions enable rapid response as critical needs arise in different areas.
• Disasters from all types of natural causes – tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes or floods – require emergency resources to be deployed to the point of need and to be fully functional. 

This solution will also benefit emergency response beyond the current health crisis. The flexible, durable, mobile units can be customized and deployed to meet the needs of future emergency situations as they surface.  They can be reused and redeployed better than temporary built structures. 

Driving Expedited Design-Build

Synergy Med Global Design Solutions has developed and patented clean cube technology for medical applications.  They have applied their designs to mobile containerized units, initially for forward military operating deployments and now to commercial and governmental rapid response units.  Synergy Med selected Hunt for its manufacturing based upon its significant experience in manufacturing other military and government containerized solutions, as well as its quick response, teaming mentality. 

In order to move the project from concept to completion as quickly as possible, Synergy Med brought several highly experienced medical architecture and electrical firms out of Denver, Davis Partnership Architects, and BCER Engineers, together to work with Hunt Electric Corporation to drive an extremely fast-paced design process. The intent was to establish key elements during the design phase, which would be added to and fine-tuned during assembly. This iterative process truly exemplifies design-build in its purest sense.

After just two weeks in design, the project moved into the build phase. Hunt Electric Corporation coordinated the production of the first proof-of-concept unit at our headquarters in Bloomington, MN. Anticipating the greatest pressure on testing, triage, and outpatient care, we opted to produce this relief unit first. 

Hunt Electric collaborated with Better Building Data, Homeco Insulation, Kendell Doors, Olympic Companies, Inc., Ryan Companies, Schadegg Mechanical, St. Paul Linoleum, STAR, Super Cubes, Swanson & Youngdale, and Tom Kraemer, Inc. to construct the unit. Moving with remarkable urgency, the build team worked day and night in our 30,000 square foot prefabrication shop to complete the unit in only two weeks.

Social Distancing in a Multi-Trade Prefabrication Project

This project relied on the joint efforts of team members from various trades. Ensuring the safety of everyone in the build space was a project priority. Hunt Electric’s Health and Safety department implemented stringent social distancing methods, including:

• Limiting crew size and rotating shifts to minimize contact between trades
• Regular sanitation efforts, mandatory face coverings, and prohibiting the shared use of tools
• Installing additional bathrooms and handwashing stations to provide separate facilities for regular and guest team members

By following this protocol, we ensured that the experts performing this critical work were able to do so in an environment that minimized risk for all.

The Final Product: A Comprehensive Containerized Solution

In just one month, our team brought the testing, triage, and outpatient care unit from innovative designs and ideas to completed proof-of-concept that is production ready. This durable, highly-flexible solution provides a wide variety of solutions for a wide variety of end users. The fully-equipped base units can be modified to meet the specific needs of the situations to which they are deployed.

    

BASE UNIT FEATURES

• Self-contained mechanical and electrical systems
  • HVAC with high-level filtration and 100% outdoor air
  • Hand-sinks for each space
  • Lighting and power with control for each space
  • Ability to connect to utility or generator power
• Demountable wall-partitions to maximize the flexibility of the space
• Data and documentation integration for smart tagging and reading of systems, equipment and inventory items
• Interior floor, walls, and ceiling made with Altro PVC hygienic surfaces for extremely efficient cleaning.
• A proprietary self-cleaning system with Bioquell interfacing with doors, hardware, HVAC system and patented vaporized hydrogen-peroxide to disinfect spaces in minutes between patients.

Before deployment, the base units can be outfitted with a variety of wall-mounted accessories, medical equipment, and inventory. This flexibility enables end users to support nearly every urgent need that can arise in an emergency.

   

What Makes Our Containerized Solution Unique?

Construction teams across the country are developing containerized medical units to meet the needs of the current crisis. The units designed by our project team maximize the potential of this solution by leveraging the following features:

• The unit intakes fresh air to avoid recycled contamination and houses an automatic cleaning system to sterilize the space between patients.
• The demountable partitions maximize the flexibility of the space, allowing for real-time modification of use.
• The units are equipped with robust data integration to track equipment, maintenance, and report status of the location and inventory

Who Can Benefit from These Containers?

The short answer is: everyone. The global nature and acute pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted sectors without bias. Agencies and organizations worldwide have expressed the need for flexible, scalable, high-quality solutions to support healthcare systems where the existing infrastructure cannot.

Primary interest in these containers has come from a variety of sources:

• The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
• The Army Corps of Engineers
• The National Guard (various states)
• The US Armed Forces
• Several regional healthcare providers
• Numerous overseas partners

Total Team Effort for Lasting Impact

From start to finish, the entire project team displayed exemplary capabilities and willingness to go above and beyond to deliver Synergy Med a high-quality product. Their efforts resulted in a reliable solution capable of meeting the evolving needs of hard-hit communities throughout the United States and worldwide. These units will benefit crisis response well into the future, enabling end users to effectively provide safe and sanitary care to populations in need anywhere on Earth.

ADDITIONAL PRESS LINKS:

First in the nation tech arrives in El Paso to aid in the fight against COVID-19

New Clean Cube installed at UMC clinic