| The primary responsibility of sickbay is to provide for the complete medical needs of the ship's multi-species crew. It is also equipped with the most advanced technology to detect, contain or aid previously unknown lifeforms or biohazards. The Medical department, under the direction of the Chief Medical Officer, is principally located in two sickbay facilities. The primary facility, located on the port side of the ship, consists of two medical intensive- care wards, an attached laboratory, the CMO's office, and a small nursery. The second facility, located on the starboard side, is similar to the primary sickbay but features two dedicated surgery suites, a physical therapy facility, a nursery, and a null-grav therapy ward. Adjacent to the second facility is a dental care office and a full biohazard isolation unit. These facilities provide the medical staff with an impressive complement of tools with which to handle an extraordinary range of medical problems for both known and presently unknown species. Capabilities include a fully equipped medical laboratory with an advanced bioassay and lifeform analysis hardware. Also available are anontherapy, genetic sequence, and virothereapeutic equipment. Medical lab capabilities can be bolstered by employing the lab services of one or more shipboard science departments. In a large-scale medical emergency situation, all three shuttlebays can be converted to medium- and intensive care hospital facilities using quick-deploy emergency hospital modules. Additionally, lesser numbers of overflow patients can be handled by conversion of guest quarters on Decks 5 and 6 to medical intensive-care units. The primary ICU is where most of the day to day business of sickbay is handled. It is equipped to deal with problems ranging from minor illness or injury up to complex surgical procedures. Each of the ICU's biobeds has built in biological sensors to continually monitor patient status. This ever-changing information is reported in a diagnostic display at the head of each biobed. For surgery, all biobeds can be outfitted with a surgical support frame. The frame arches over a patient's body and creates a sterile surgical field. An opening at the top provides access for the Doctor. The support frame is equipped with a multitude of scanning devices, displays, and resuscitation devices. It can also be used to administer medication. For more complex or delicate procedures the dedicated surgical suite is often used. The Chief Medical Officer's office provides a quiet space for the person in charge. From here the CMO can observe the ICU, refer to the medical library and catch up on administrative duties. If a patient is injured beyond the capabilities of the Malverne�s medical facilities, they are place in a stasis unit and held in suspended animation until the required treatment can be rendered. The Malverne currently has two dozen such trauma units. Sickbay has it's own computer facility which contains the sum medical knowledge of most of the federations worlds. The computer also controls most of sickbay's functions and is a powerful processing tool. This is also where the programming for the EMHP is stored. The medical lab attached to sickbay may not be devoted to research but it still contains the most advanced bioassay and lifeform analysis equipment available. Amongst these are hardware devoted to genetic sequencing, nanotherapy and virotherapeutic treatment. |
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