Local emergency physician raises concerns about Region 5 Healthcare Coalition handling of mobile medical unit and PPE
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Summary
An emergency physician and firefighter told commissioners that equipment was removed from a county-housed medical support vehicle and that PPE from the Strategic National Stockpile was discarded during a regional coalition relocation; county staff said they will follow up.
An emergency physician and local first responder told the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners on July 15 that a regional healthcare coalition removed equipment from a county‑housed medical support vehicle without broad local notification and that pandemic supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile were discarded when the coalition moved its warehousing.
Josh Massebrook, an emergency physician who also serves as a firefighter and first responder in Richland, described Medical Support Unit 3 (MSU‑3) as a county‑based response asset housed at Comstock Fire Station. He told the board the vehicle is equipped to support rehabilitation and care at mass‑casualty incidents and is stocked with oxygen plumbing, stair chairs, tourniquets, gauze, blood‑pressure cuffs and other mass‑casualty supplies so it can immediately support victims or respond to firefighter rehab on scene.
Massebrook said coalition leadership and the Region 5 coordinator visited Comstock in May and removed most of the equipment from MSU‑3 “without the knowledge ... of the planning board for the coalition and without the hospital's knowledge and without any of the fire department's knowledge.” He said the unit is a regional asset and that missing equipment would render the vehicle less useful in a response.
Massebrook also said that when the coalition changed fiduciary arrangements and moved warehoused supplies to another county it “ended up throwing away a large amount of specifically PPE, gowns, gloves, that were not expired,” and raised concern that items could have been distributed to local responders or used for training rather than discarded.
The board acknowledged the concerns and the administrator said staff and emergency management would follow up with the Region 5 Healthcare Coalition and the county's emergency management director to learn more and report back.
Ending: County administrators told the board they would pursue follow up with coalition and emergency management leaders to clarify the status of MSU‑3 equipment and the disposition of pandemic supplies.
