The U.S. Air Force’s C-STARS (Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills) Omaha team has had two of its three members deployed since March 23, 2020, in support of COVID-19 operations. Lt. Col. Elizabeth Schnaubelt and Technical Sergeant Victor Kipping were deployed to Joint Base Charleston in South Carolina, to support operationalizing the Transportation Isolation System (TIS) for COVID-19 patient movement and conducting operational utility evaluations on the Portable Bio-Containment Care Module (PBCM), a system utilized by the State Department to transport patients with highly infectious diseases. Both systems were designed to move a relatively small number of patients with high consequence infectious diseases, but neither system was designed to move large numbers of patients.
Lt. Col. Schnaubelt and TSgt Kipping then joined a "team of teams" interdisciplinary effort to develop a capability for high-capacity airlift of patients with COVID-19, contributing their knowledge and experiences gained while training and working alongside their partners at UNMC/Nebraska Medicine. The "Negatively Pressurized CONEX" (NPC) is a 40-foot metal shipping container retrofitted with air-handling and medical equipment to transport and care for patients with COVID-19 while protecting members outside the NPC from exposure. The NPC was designed to be carried on a C-17 transport aircraft. A smaller version, the NPC-Lite, was designed to be carried on a C-130. The system's onboard equipment ensures negative air pressure on the inside so that the aircrew responsible for transporting it and its patients won't be put at risk for infection.
Both Lt. Col. Schnaubelt and TSgt Kipping were instrumental in advancing the NPC from a design concept to an operational asset available to the warfighter in just 95 days, a process that normally takes more than a year to complete. This success is largely attributable to the incredible reachback support and expertise provided by our colleagues at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Nebraska Medicine, the Global Center for Health Security, and National Strategic Research Institute.The first production of the NPC was delivered to Joint Base Charleston on June 7, 2020, where it was subjected to a rigorous series of tests. Its initial test flight was on June 15, and it flew its first operational mission June 30.
TSgt Kipping is currently deployed to Germany where he is training physicians, nurses, and technicians to safely operate in the NPC and NPC-Lite while adhering to infection prevention and control procedures and delivering care to Lt. Col. Schnaubelt is now back in Omaha and continuing efforts to implement the C-STARS Omaha Principles of Biocontainment Care course and resuming her clinical role at UNMC/Nebraska Medicine.