The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers met the challenge to provide additional hospital rooms for COVID-19 patients by inventing portable medical units created at the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC).
Relieving overcrowded hospital facilities, these prefabricated containers were modified as medical isolation rooms and received U. S. Patent 11103406, titled “Airborne infectious disease isolation units and method of making using prefabricated containers.” The patent was issued in August 2021 for the six-member invention team at ERDC’s Installation Operations Command (IOC) Installation Support Division.