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Members of an Army medical team get fit-tested for personal protective equipment. The Army arrived on campus Sept. 10 to help provide COVID-19 patient care in the UAMS Medical Center.
Image by Bryan Clifton
Army Medical Team at UAMS to Help Care for COVID-19 Patients
The Army medical team Sept. 10 follows a UAMS guide through the lobby of the UAMS Medical Center.Image by Bryan Clifton
| Each speaker who spoke Sept. 9 to the Army personnel in the Lobby Gallery at UAMS chose different words to deliver the same message: We need you, and we are so very glad you’re here.
Including nurses, respiratory therapists and physicians, the 20-person Army medical team arrived Thursday on the main campus for orientation. Starting Saturday, Sept. 11, and for 30 days, they will work in the UAMS Medical Center treating UAMS hospitalized patients.
“I make comments at our morning meetings and ask for any suggestions or thoughts. When I pause, it’s just crickets. We are just spent,” said Julie Atkins, RN, director of the assistant directors of nursing and the Resource Management Office. “That changed on Friday just as soon as we knew you were coming. At least, we knew you were coming here to help. We are super, super grateful. We would hug you all if we could hug.”
Atkins also is the associate administrator of Patient Care Services and nursing director of Oncology, Solid Organ Transplant, Orthopaedic and Otolarynology units and Apheresis.
UAMS Medical Center CEO, Steppe Mette, M.D., Sept. 13 formally welcomed the Army medical team to UAMS at the start of a news conference. Mette is also senior vice chancellor of UAMS Health.
Michelle Krause, far right, addresses the team gathered Sept. 10 in the Lobby Gallery for orientation. Michael Manley, chief of staff in the UAMS Chancellor’s Office, stands second from right.Image by Bryan Clifton
According to a news release from the U.S. Army North (Fifth Army), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requested the deployment of about 60 military medical personnel in three, 20-person teams, each to one of three states — Arkansas, Alabama and Idaho.
“This is the first time Department of Defense medical assets have deployed to support both Idaho and Arkansas during the pandemic,” said Lt. Gen. Laura J. Richardson, Army North commander. “We are proud to be called upon to support our local, state and federal partners there, and in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, in this whole-of-government response.”
Army medical teams were deployed earlier to hospitals in Louisiana, Mississippi and to another city in Alabama.
Michelle Krause, M.D., MPH, recounted to the Army team how she and Jake Stover, UAMS chief administrative officer and associate vice chancellor for clinical finance, worked together in mid-August to apply to FEMA for help with staffing. They didn’t receive any response until Sept. 3.
“We didn’t hear anything, and then on Sept. 3 we got word that ‘lo and behold’ you were coming,” Krause said. “We quickly pulled things together for onboarding, so everyone will be ready to go on Saturday morning.”
Rawle “Tony” Seupaul addresses the Army medical team and welcomes them during their orientation.Image by Bryan Clifton
Krause also is a Professor in the Division of Nephrology in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine and helps oversee the COVID response at UAMS.
Trenda Ray, Ph.D., RN, UAMS chief nursing officer; Rawle “Tony” Seupaul, M.D., UAMS chief clinical officer and chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine; and Ron Robertson, M.D., chair of the Department of Surgery and trauma medical director, each in turn expressed their gratitude to the team and a sense of relief at their arrival.
Michael Manley, RN, chief of staff in the UAMS Chancellor’s Office, spoke on behalf of the chancellor.
“We want you to know that whatever you need, 24/7, we have your back,” Manley said. “I want to welcome you to UAMS. We look forward to working with all of you.”