Defense Department to reorient medical footprint in New York
by Abraham Mahshie | April 14, 2020 05:38 PM
The Pentagon aims to reach 60,000 tests per day by the end of May, said Defense Secretary Mark Esper at a Tuesday press briefing, adding that the underused medical assets deployed to New York City will reconfigure, with personnel embedding in local hospitals.
“The strategy changed,” he said. “What’s obviously become strained and stressed are these hard-working nurses and doctors and respiratory therapists and everybody who’s been at this now for weeks, and they’re getting burned out and getting worn down.”
Esper said a portion of doctors will be moved off the USNS Comfort hospital ship to embed in local New York City hospitals. The move follows days of increasing calls to reposition medical staff from unused surge hospital beds.
On the West Coast, the hospital ship USNS Mercy, docked in Los Angeles, has already shifted medical personnel and reduced its bed capacity from 1,000 to 250 to adjust to local needs.
“It looks like it has flattened the curve, and so the states have the bed capacity,” Esper said of the success of social distancing measures and the rate of infection in New York.
The defense secretary described a new, three-phase plan that includes embedding doctors and nurses into local hospitals, expanding the wing of a hospital — an approach being used in Connecticut — and the initial approach of using military assets to expand hospital bed capacity.
“Our challenge is to keep adapting as we see the states adapt,” he said, admitting that defense medical personnel will suffer attrition as more are exposed and become infected by the virus.
Esper said 4,000 military medical personnel have been deployed nationally, including 2,100 in New York City alone.
Hours before the briefing, medical personnel deployed in the New York City surge response, including the Javits Center and Comfort hospital ship, explained why they are still needed.
“They're very busy here in New York City,” U.S. Air Force Col. Jennifer Ratcliff told the Washington Examiner in a press call. “The city, I believe, still needs our assets, especially the Navy and now Army in the city."
Chief Nurse Officer Lt. Col. Leslie Curtis said the Javits Center intakes 120 to 150 patients per day and discharges 40 to 50 per day, maintaining an occupancy of some 300 beds, far below its estimated 2,500 capacity.
“We've been bringing in 20, 30 nurses a day, onboarding them through the agencies, and then what they do is shadow for a day or two, and they're put on the schedule,” she said. “We have a very, very active, busy floor, taking care of patients.”
Esper also announced more medical equipment transfers and purchases for civilian use.
The DOD will release an additional 10 million N95 masks, and a $415 million defense contract was signed to produce 60 decontamination systems. The units can sterilize 5 million N95 masks per day, allowing the masks to be used up to 20 times before disposal.
Ramping up troop testing
Perplexed by the behavior of the virus, the Defense Department is planning to ramp up troop testing drastically.
“We’re understanding more about this virus as we look at the Roosevelt,” Esper said, describing how of 585 sailors who tested positive on the carrier USS Roosevelt, only 213 are symptomatic.
“Think about that: There are people who have tested positive, over 300, who are just moving around,” he said.
In all, 4,769 individuals across the DOD have suffered from the coronavirus, with 200 currently hospitalized and 16 fatalities.
At 950 positive cases, the Navy still has 350 more cases than the next-most affected service. On Monday, one of the sailors who fell sick on board the Roosevelt became the first active-duty service member to die of the virus.
For the first time Tuesday, the Pentagon acknowledged that the Pacific aircraft carrier Roosevelt, now portside in Guam, is “sidelined” as a result of the contagion’s spread onboard.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said that in the next 45 days, the Pentagon will drastically ramp up its testing capability from 9,000 per day to 60,000 per day.
“Our desire, our aspiration, is to expand testing,” said Milley, with a particular focus on groups that will operate in tighter quarters, such as submarine and bomber teams and basic trainees.
Esper said science will guide the Defense Department's decision-making regarding coronavirus prevention on everything from Marines’ haircuts to the operations of Tier I and strategic forces.
“There will be a multitude of factors, but driven by science,” he said. “What the scientists, what the doctors are telling us.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/defense-department-to-reorient-medical-footprint-in-new-york