12.2 Medical Facilities and Systems
Details the primary medical care facility aboard Deep Space 9, the infirmary on the Promenade lower level, including the unique biological-science and wartime emergency demands placed upon it, the layout of its surgical suite, diagnostic and research center, and intensive-care ward, the noncritical-care wards in the Mid-Core and the forty-five distributed emergency stations, the means of moving patients by transporter or turbolift, the additional medical labs in the Habitat Ring and Mid-Core and their conversion to isolation units by force field, and the normal staffing levels and shift rotations of physicians, technicians, nurses, and research personnel.
The primary medical care facility aboard Deep Space 9 is the infirmary located on the Promenade lower level. The nature of the station as a convergent point for large numbers of Alpha Quadrant races has placed unique demands on the staff and available systems from a basic biological science standpoint. Wartime operations have placed a different set of demands on the facility in the area of emergency treatment.
Facilities
The infirmary consists of a collection of rooms (along Arc 1) with its entrance set in the outer pedestrian walkway. The main sections are the surgical suite, diagnostic and research center, and medical intensive-care ward. Two large noncritical-care wards are located in the Mid-Core on Level 13, and forty-five smaller unattended stations are distributed about Deep Space 9 for initial emergency treatments prior to transfers to the infirmary. While critical patient movements can be made by transporter within a ten-second window, transfers may involve distances of up to two kilometers by turbolift in the event the transporters are unavailable. Patient transfers from the runabout pads are normally quick moves through the crossover bridges and up to the Promenade, and any incoming patients brought through the large docking ports are also quickly moved through the bridges.
Other related medical facilities located in the Habitat Ring and Mid-Core are physical therapy suites, microgravity research lab, dental care office, immunological lab, stereotaxonomy lab, and EM cytology analysis lab. While there is no dedicated biohazard-isolation section, most habitable spaces close to the medical labs can be quickly converted to isolation units through the use of force fields.
Staff
Normal infirmary and medical department staffing is ten staff physicians, five of whom are expected to have undergone emergency medical training; nine medical technicians; and a mixed complement of twenty Starfleet and Bajoran certified nurses. The normal 8.75-hour duty shift in the infirmary proper involves one staff physician, two nurses, and two medical technicians. The remaining staff are distributed to the laboratories and other research suites and are rotated to the infirmary in three shifts per twenty-six-hour day. An overlap of some ten minutes allows the shifts to exchange updates during changeover. Research laboratory personnel not directly assigned to the infirmary rotation number anywhere between fifteen and twenty-five, and are Starfleet, Bajoran, or independent scientists and technicians who have brought special projects to Deep Space 9.