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In today’s society, it is important for communities to be prepared in the event of a mass casualty or mass fatality incident. Disaster response preparedness is critical to ensure that a community can respond quickly with all of the resources needed. Penn Care has a wide variety of products aimed at assisting with disaster response and homeland security. To help educate our customers on what products are best suited for their disaster response needs, we will be publishing a series of blog posts on each of our disaster response products.
During a mass fatality incident, traditional morgues can be overwhelmed by the volume of bodies from such an event. Although it’s not something an average person might ever consider, what would happen to all of the bodies if they were not properly refrigerated? The MERC  (Mortuary Enhanced Remains Cooling) System addresses the need for portable mass fatality cold storage and is revolutionizing the way that organizations prepare for a disaster.
Ensuring that human remains are kept in cold storage after a mass casualty event is critical. Currently, the vast majority of human remains are refrigerated utilizing either refrigerated container trucks or fixed site refrigerators. The MERC System was developed as a portable unit (mobile morgue), so it can be moved to the location of the event and  set up in a tent, warehouse, gymnasium, parking lot or roadway. It is the only portable morgue system available that does not use chilled air to provide cooling for human remains. Instead, it uses liquid cooling technology and specially designed cooling bags. MERC Systems are low maintenance and can be fully operational in less than 15 minutes. Additionally, they can provide cooling for 1 – 48 remains.
Check out this informational video on the MERC System for a high level overview of when this mobile morgue should be utilized and how it works.
The MERC System was developed by Mortuary Response Solutions, a company specializing in mobile morgue solutions for critical situations. Penn Care is an authorized dealer who works with communities and organizations to ensure that the MERC System is the right fit for their needs. Learn more about the MERC System here.
Has your organization or community utilized an alternative storage system in the past? What did you like or not like about it? Have you had any experience with the MERC System? We’d love to hear from you, post a comment below!
