Mobile Medical Surge Unit completes mission in Salt Lake City following flood damage
Shortly after midnight on August 27, leaders at the Veterans Affairs Salt Lake City Health Care System received an unexpected call, notifying them of a substantial water leak in the facility. In a matter of hours, the medical center’s plumbers and engineers determined a hot water pipe broke.
That pipe spewed about 4,000 gallons of water before it could be shut off, resulting in significant water damage to six floors of the medical center and impacting patient care.
The top floor of the medical center, where the water pipe was broken, was completely devasted. In the floors below, exam rooms and inpatient rooms were damaged and closed, medical equipment was immediately relocated to dry areas, forcing medical staff to redirect hundreds of Veteran appointments to the community. It was then that medical center leaders and staff knew it would be a long time before Veteran care would return to normal.
“It was crazy how much water there was,” said Jana Pace, a nurse manager at the medical center. “I didn’t think it was going to be possible for us to manage.”
Pace said more than 350,000 visits are received each year in the outpatient surgical and medical specialty clinics, heavily impacted by the flooding, and a quick response was needed to prevent long-term adverse impacts on the Veterans.
The timing of the flooding was not ideal. Just hours before the leak, the National Veterans Golden Games kicked off in Salt Lake City. More than 800 Veteran athletes from around the country converged on Salt Lake City. As the host, VA Salt Lake City had dozens of competitive events planned throughout the city with some on campus.
With a VHA Office of Emergency Management (OEM) team, already in-place to support the Golden Age Games, medical center’s team turned to the on-the-ground OEM team to become part of the solution that followed.
“We needed exam rooms,” said Frank Chaidez, medical center strategic planner. “The Mobile Medical Surge Unit seemed to be the best [asset] to meet our needs.”
OEM’s Mobile Medical Surge Unit (MMSU) arrived in less than two weeks and was quickly assembled and operational. Matthew Critchfield, medical center acting associate director, was taken back by the turnaround time of the MMSU. He described the timeliness of receiving the unit and having it unloaded, set-up, and ready to see patients with power and water and everything ready to go as impressive.
“When we went to the mobile unit, we did not have to decrease our patient volume at all,” Pace said. “Every patient who had been scheduled for clinic came and we were able to take care of all of their needs. It was awesome.”
Pace said more than 125 patients were seen each week in the MMSU.
“It was really amazing,” she said. “The Veterans who came to the clinic were so surprised when they got there that we were able to provide them with the care that they expected and anticipated when they arrived.”
The MMSU is an OEM national resource capable of providing more than 10 beds or exam rooms that comes with medical-grade electric, oxygen, potable water generators, and HVAC and lighting systems installed. It’s based on the design of a hard-sided fold-out rigid tactical shelter that’s heated and cooled and can withstand most weather conditions and environments.
More than 3,000 patients were seen in the MMSU from September 2024 to March 2025, recently departing Salt Lake City for another mission in Grand Junction, Colorado, where it’ll receive patients while the medical center undergoes renovations.
“If you have an event that significantly impacts your facility, I would think very seriously about having this unit at your disposal. Having that at a VA’s disposal going forward for any event, whether that’s a weather disaster or a flood like we encountered, it’s really a great resource for medical centers to use and overall, there was a positive impact on our Veterans,” Critchfield said. “If you have an event that significantly impacts your facility, I would think very seriously about having this unit at your disposal.”