MANHATTAN, KS – This past weekend, DRASH supported the 2011 Country Stampede Music Festival, one of the largest outdoor country music and camping festivals held in the United States with a mobile field hospital system.The festival has been held annually since 1996, on the last weekend in June in the Tuttle Creek Lake State Park, just north of Manhattan, Kansas. Riley County EMS and Mercy Regional Health Center are responsible for providing emergency medical care at the event. They estimate that an additional 150,000 plus people per day stay in the area while the concert is taking place, which would greatly exceed the hospital’s capacity.
Staffed by members of Riley County EMS, the Blue Township Volunteer Fire Department and several nurses from Mercy Regional the mobile field hospital and supporting triage stations was set up to provide space in which emergency personnel could begin administering onsite care and treatment at Country Stampede. Depending on the severity of their injuries, would-be concert goers would be assessed at one of the 442 square foot DRASH Trailer Mounted Support System (TMSS) triage stations. From there, a determination would be made depending on the severity of their injuries where they would receive treatment. Some patients could be attended to at the triage stations while others were relocated to the field hospital, a 748 square foot DRASH M Shelter for further treatment or until arrangements could be made to transport them to the local hospital.
“Having DRASH systems in place to serve as triage, staging and treatment areas certainly cuts down on the surge that our local hospital would experience during the week-long event,” said David Adams, Operations Supervisor and Preparedness Coordinator for Special Events at Riley County EMS. “People start arriving for the concert days before it begins. With these shelters in place, we can properly care for multiple patients onsite in a controlled and sterile environment.”
The 2011 event took place June 23-26th. The musical lineup included performances by Lady Antebellum, Blake Shelton and Brad Paisley. Over 400 patients were evaluated and treated with no major incidents.