MedicalGuide

                                  "Guide to the Medical Department"

Medical Officers have an important role on the ship. Understandably, with this importance, there is a lot of training involved with medical positions. The countless diseases, as well as medicines, treatments and equipment, are some of things that are learned through proper training. Medical Officers are responsible for the physical health of their patients, but must consider the mental well being of them as well. If no counselor is present, then the Doctor must fulfill those duties as well. Medical Officers are often seen on away missions and must be familiar with Standard Care as well as Emergency Care and triage.

Sickbay is the primary facility used by medical officers. It is generally located towards the middle of all class starships. The Sickbay facilities consists of the following: (Not all of these are used on every ship. Contact your CO for the ones that you will use)

-Main Ward- the general diagnosis and treatment room with Biobeds; The CMOs office is normally adjacent to the main ward and used exclusively by the CMO.

-Medical Labs- used for advanced diagnostic work and specimen examination; med labs are seen attached to the main ward or separate and can be located throughout the ship.

-Surgical Suite- one of the biobeds are set up for use as a devoted surgical suite, employing an advanced surgical support frame and containment forcefields, as well as a more detailed information display for easier access to critical information; this biobed is set apart from the rest.

-Auxiliary Sickbay- On larger ships, or ships with a higher sickbay usage, an auxiliary sickbay is sometimes created to handle the overflow of patients. This facility is often created in an emergency and sometimes is actually a converted cargo bay. However, after extended use or an expected increase of patients, an actual facility is added. This secondary sickbay can be a duplicate of sickbay, with general equipment and biobeds, or can be used for Emergency Care or Long-term Care.

     Other medical facilities that are utilized on starships are a dental office, nursery, physical therapy ward, and a nullgrav therapy ward. The nullgrav therapy ward has, however, fallen out of use in most ships, but it is still used on occasion.

    The head of the medical department is the Chief Medical Officer (CMO). The CMO is accountable for the health and general-well being of all crew members. All medical officers report to and receive their orders from the CMO. The CMO is a department head and a member of the senior staff. If any crew member is endangering themselves or other crew members, the CMO has the power to relieve them of duty, including the CO or XO. The CMO is the only officer that is reserved this right, except for higher-ranking officers.

   General duties of Assistant Medical Officers (AMO) include: assisting the CMO, performing annual physicals of the crew, assisting in the treatment of injured, collecting inventory information, stocking supplies, doing routine maintenance of the equipment, checking the hyposprays and medkits, setting out needed medical equipment, recalibrating the biobeds, checking the functionality of the regenerators and tricorders and setting up the Med Lab for test analysis.

     In the event that more medical staff is needed, or inadequate staff is available, the Emergency Medical Hologram Program (EMH) is available for use. The EMH is a holographic doctor that has the medical knowledge of over XX doctors and XX species. The Holographic projectors are monitored and adjusted by Engineering. The EMH has a direct link to the ship computer and is able to draw on anything new that is put into the ships data banks. The EMH reports directly to the Chief Medical Officer.