The DAN World-Wide RCN

THE DAN RECOMPRESSION CHAMBER NETWORK

TEXT BY FRANCOIS BURMAN, PR. ENG., MSC

DAN collates information on all hyperbaric chambers capable of and willing to treat injured scuba divers.

Ideally, chambers are located in close proximity to a medical facility, to facilitate comprehensive evaluation and diagnosis, and support where additional medical treatments may be required. However, especially in many remote areas, chambers may be located in local clinics or even as stand-alone facilities.

With accurate information and direct contact, our team of diving medical doctors and hotline specialists can triage with almost any facility as long as we have some basic information.

The most important details that we endeavour to collect include:

Availability: 24/7, office hours or on-call only

Essential facility equipment, such as redundant air and oxygen supplies

Essential safety equipment such as fire extinguishing systems, alarms, and gas analyzers

Maintenance program

Appropriate staff training and certifications, and

A willingness to work with the DAN diving medicine team

Facilities, personnel, contact details and availability are all likely to change with time, and our chamber network team regularly updates this information through direct and regular contact

The information we gather is captured in a realtime, on-line database to enable rapid identification of an appropriate facility, and to be able to establish immediate communication with them in the event of an emergency.

It is important to note that this information is not made public as the status of chambers changes frequently. However, we do provide specific information to organizations such as hospital ER’s, the armed forces, and dive operators and professionals preparing their emergency action plan.

There are two programs associated with the RCN that are intended to ensure availability and rapid response.

(1) The DAN Recompression Chamber Assistance Program, or RCAP, intended for chambers in locations essential to us that require our help to ensure their availability and capabilities. We provide technical and operational advice and offer on-site safety assessments and training. These chambers are usually located in more remote areas and often have a greater reliance on diving patients for their income and sustainability.

(2) The DAN Preferred Provider Network, or PPN, established with key recompression chamber facilities in important diving areas, that are sufficiently equipped to provide treatments to all divers. Critical care capability is not required. We maintain regular communication, which allows immediate access to treatment in emergencies, without the need for payment guarantees.

In many areas, recompression chamber facilities can really only deal with stable and generally ambulatory patients. This requires us to locate facilities capable of a higher level of care where critically ill divers can be evacuated to. This is a challenge in many of the remote areas.

Where we identify regions where details on any chambers is limited, we conduct first-hand, field assessments to allow us to capture the essential information. We have just completed a trip to the most popular dive regions within Indonesia, where we conducted safety assessments and training, and added some suitable facilities to the network.

These are generally hands-on and intensive programs, and managed jointly by our medical and safety services departments.

Finally, this collaborative initiative involves all the DAN organisations including America, Europe, Southern Africa, Japan, and World, to ensure that the RCN database extends to as much of the diving world as possible. Divers can rest assured that in the event of a diving emergency, where recompression therapy is the required treatment, DAN has the ability to ensure the rapid and effective referral to the closest suitable chamber.