Emergency Hospital
Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization
Creative Arts Studio, Inc.
1959
Recognizing a need
for continuity of medical services in the aftermath of an enemy atomic attack, the federal government instituted a program in 1956
to create portable disaster hospitals in large cities across the United States. The plan called for 200 bed units, modeled upon the mobile army surgical hospital, which would contain all the necessary components for a patient's recovery and which could be shipped from storage
to safer locales via semi-truck upon warning of an imminent attack. The finale of Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow
features the set-up of one such hospital by teams of volunteers who complete
the job in a mere four hours. A far more detailed description of the
disaster hospital program was provided in 1959 when the animation experts of
Creative Arts Studio teamed with the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization
to produce Emergency Hospital.
Consisting almost
entirely of still images strung together with narration, Emergency Hospital
takes the form of a filmograph, similar to Fallout: When and How to Protect
Yourself, also produced by Creative Arts Studio the same year. The film is set in Hometown, USA, where a
population of 600,000 strains the hospital system during peacetime. Following an atomic attack, the injuries
of everyday life would be coupled with the burned, crushed, and radiated survivors
of the blast who would need immediate attention as well as shelter from fallout.
Interestingly, the narrator
indicates the first step officials should take would be to utilize all
surviving hospitals, no matter what their distance to ground zero, before
sending patients to the makeshift hospitals in surrounding areas. Well in
advance of any emergency, the city should select a multipurpose building
outside predicted destruction zones and arrange to have the packaged medical
unit stored nearby. The officials of Hometown opt to use school
buildings, found to have good fallout protection, in neighboring communities.
One of the top priorities of the
Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization was to inform the public of the
dangers of fallout radiation which had been treated as a nominal threat for the
previous decade. Given this new governmental position, Emergency Hospital
extensively stresses the consideration of fallout protection in any building
chosen, shown onscreen when Hometown engineers and architects examine the
sheltering abilities of various sites. Further protection can be gained, the
narrator adds, by placing sandbags and plywood around ground level
windows. When the building is deemed secure, the hospital itself will
arrive, crated and in need of assembly. The film is quick to point out
that while all the components of a complete hospital will be included in the
packaged disaster units, only a limited number of supplies can be provided
initially. As a solution to this problem, the federal government's plan
called for a number of depots to cache medical supplies in massive warehouses
at strategic locations across the United States. When the operational
hospitals ran low on supplies, orders would be placed with the warehouses and
the proper deliveries made.
Records from the Office of Civil Defense show that by 1964, over 2,000 disaster hospitals had been packaged, the vast majority of them having been placed in storage on the East Coast. These same records show the complexity of the hospitals, which contained equipment for trauma care, X-Rays, sterilization, full surgeries, recovery wards, and even a morgue. In addition, the film offers tips for improvised sterilization if regular power is unavailable, despite the generators included with the hospital. Perhaps to drive away the belief that emergency hospitals would consist of spartan care surrounded by primitive conditions, a number of still frames are presented near the film's conclusion which highlight the modernity patients could expect. Bloody and battered casualties appear alongside images of immaculate surgical units, ample doctors, and healing victims attended to on evenly spaced cots in uncrowded conditions. While these photos were likely snapped during a civil 
defense drill, complete with mock bandages, the narrator reiterates that with extensive planning prior to the arrival of enemy bombers, the story of Hometown would be the post-attack reality. Although the packaged disaster hospital program would continue through the 1960's, Emergency Hospital was declared obsolete by 1965. Ironically, however, scenes from the film would appear in the 1965 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare production Hospitals for Disaster, which offers a gritty and detailed look at the importance of continuing medical services during an emergency.
Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization
Creative Arts Studio, Inc.
1959
Recognizing a need
for continuity of medical services in the aftermath of an enemy atomic attack, the federal government instituted a program in 1956
to create portable disaster hospitals in large cities across the United States. The plan called for 200 bed units, modeled upon the mobile army surgical hospital, which would contain all the necessary components for a patient's recovery and which could be shipped from storage
to safer locales via semi-truck upon warning of an imminent attack. The finale of Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow
features the set-up of one such hospital by teams of volunteers who complete
the job in a mere four hours. A far more detailed description of the
disaster hospital program was provided in 1959 when the animation experts of
Creative Arts Studio teamed with the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization
to produce Emergency Hospital.
Consisting almost
entirely of still images strung together with narration, Emergency Hospital
takes the form of a filmograph, similar to Fallout: When and How to Protect
Yourself, also produced by Creative Arts Studio the same year. The film is set in Hometown, USA, where a
population of 600,000 strains the hospital system during peacetime. Following an atomic attack, the injuries
of everyday life would be coupled with the burned, crushed, and radiated survivors
of the blast who would need immediate attention as well as shelter from fallout.
Interestingly, the narrator
indicates the first step officials should take would be to utilize all
surviving hospitals, no matter what their distance to ground zero, before
sending patients to the makeshift hospitals in surrounding areas. Well in
advance of any emergency, the city should select a multipurpose building
outside predicted destruction zones and arrange to have the packaged medical
unit stored nearby. The officials of Hometown opt to use school
buildings, found to have good fallout protection, in neighboring communities.
One of the top priorities of the
Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization was to inform the public of the
dangers of fallout radiation which had been treated as a nominal threat for the
previous decade. Given this new governmental position, Emergency Hospital
extensively stresses the consideration of fallout protection in any building
chosen, shown onscreen when Hometown engineers and architects examine the
sheltering abilities of various sites. Further protection can be gained, the
narrator adds, by placing sandbags and plywood around ground level
windows. When the building is deemed secure, the hospital itself will
arrive, crated and in need of assembly. The film is quick to point out
that while all the components of a complete hospital will be included in the
packaged disaster units, only a limited number of supplies can be provided
initially. As a solution to this problem, the federal government's plan
called for a number of depots to cache medical supplies in massive warehouses
at strategic locations across the United States. When the operational
hospitals ran low on supplies, orders would be placed with the warehouses and
the proper deliveries made. Records from the Office of Civil Defense show that by 1964, over 2,000 disaster hospitals had been packaged, the vast majority of them having been placed in storage on the East Coast. These same records show the complexity of the hospitals, which contained equipment for trauma care, X-Rays, sterilization, full surgeries, recovery wards, and even a morgue. In addition, the film offers tips for improvised sterilization if regular power is unavailable, despite the generators included with the hospital. Perhaps to drive away the belief that emergency hospitals would consist of spartan care surrounded by primitive conditions, a number of still frames are presented near the film's conclusion which highlight the modernity patients could expect. Bloody and battered casualties appear alongside images of immaculate surgical units, ample doctors, and healing victims attended to on evenly spaced cots in uncrowded conditions. While these photos were likely snapped during a civil defense drill, complete with mock bandages, the narrator reiterates that with extensive planning prior to the arrival of enemy bombers, the story of Hometown would be the post-attack reality. Although the packaged disaster hospital program would continue through the 1960's, Emergency Hospital was declared obsolete by 1965. Ironically, however, scenes from the film would appear in the 1965 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare production Hospitals for Disaster, which offers a gritty and detailed look at the importance of continuing medical services during an emergency.