14 BOSTON – With Mother’s Day just a week away, U.S. Navy Seaman Christopher Rivas waited patiently, preparing himself for a gift that would make his this particular one special.
The 22-year-old hospitalman, assigned to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (NMCP), Virginia, a Bostonian himself, hasn’t had the chance to visit friends and family due to time and work constraints both from him and his loved ones.
In the early days of his deployment to the Community Vaccination Center (CVC) at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, he hoped to possibly get the chance to administer the vaccine to his family and friends closest to him, and so he got that wish.
Army Lt. Gen. Ronald Place, director of the Defense Health Agency, visited Naval Medical Forces Atlantic at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, to participate in a socially distanced establishment ceremony to mark the standup of the Tidewater Market, April 28, 2021.
Tidewater Market is on the leading edge of the Military Health System s historic change, following its certification by the Defense Health Agency on April 19, 2021. By standing up the Tidewater Market, DHA enables greater collaboration across military hospitals and clinics strengthening the medical readiness of service members and enabling these facilities to deliver better care and a better patient experience. I m excited to hit the ground running as Tidewater s director, said Rear Adm. Darin Via, director of the Tidewater Market. This change benefits everyone in our market. Our patients can now access a larger network of providers and specialists; our medical professionals have greater opportunities to maintain their
. (Tribune News Service) The mission: to get shots in arms in communities that have been missing out in the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination push. It landed in the hands of the specialists at
Fort Eustis whose job is to help civilian agencies respond to disaster. Within days of any state’s call to the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, Joint Task Force-Civil Support had soldiers, sailors, airmen,
Marines or Coast Guardsmen on the road 17 sites in 12 states. The vaccination mission was a new one for the nation’s only standing Chemical, Biological,
Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Joint Task Force, which also provides command and control of 5,200 federal military forces at more than 36 locations throughout the nation acting in support of civil authority response operations.
10 When the Navy Medicine 101 pilot program was initiated in 2020 it was little surprise that Lt. Cmdr. Robert Bartholomew was selected as its architect and first course director. Since 2018, the Medical Service Corps officer has served as the Plans, Operations and Medical Intelligence (POMI) course director and instructor for operational readiness and strategic management at both Navy Medical Leader & Professional Development Center (NMLPDC) and the Uniformed Services University.
And for anyone being welcomed into Navy medical life or transitioning to an operational medicine platform there is probably no one else you would want serving as your guide. Commander Bartholomew comes to the role with an abundance of unique life and career experiences that few can match.