In the audio commentary for this episode, the writers reveal that this episode was an attempt to diverge from previous episodes of Star Trek in which a ship is critically damaged in one episode, but miraculously repaired in the next, with no mention of repair work.
This episode was directed by Roxann Dawson, who played B'Elanna Torres in Star Trek: Voyager (1995).
The automated repair station's medical re-generator is a modified reuse of the exocomp from The Quality of Life (1992).
This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series.
Trip Tucker makes reference to scratching the hull in an inspection pod. This is in reference to Broken Bow, Part 1 (2001), where he does indeed scratch the hull. "Broken Bow" took place about a year before this episode, and the time reference is correct.
Roxann Dawson: The voice of the repair station computer. She previously voiced another spacecraft computer in Dreadnought (1996).