Infection Control in Field Hospitals after a Natural Disaster: Lessons Learned after the 2010 Earthquake in Haiti

After the January 12, 2010, earthquake in Haiti, Project Medishare and the University of Miami organized, built, and staffed a 200-bed field hospital (the University of Miami Hospital in Haiti UMHH) on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. We describe the operational challenges of providing a safe environment at the UMHH. Furthermore, we compared how these issues were addressed at this ad hoc hospital with how they were addressed at the field hospital of the Israel Defense Force, a fully deployable hospital with an organization fine-tuned as a result of prior disaster situations, also in Haiti.