Pentagon officials announced the deployment of the hospital ship uss mercy to los angeles in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Personnel and military Treatment Facilities on the west coast and pacific rim. Who embark on the mercy to lift the burden of local hospitals so they can focus on caring for patients with covid19. Staff,. Mercy and its military treatment staff are ready for the mission in support and communities overwhelmed by this pandemic. Even though its not a Traditional Mission we should care, focus on, casualty doctors, nurses, corpsmen, Laboratory Professionals and many others are responsive and ready to serve the needs of our nation. We are honored to answer the call. Permitted to the force and health of our nation. Deeming to assist. Now go and introduce the Community Officer of the mercys military Treatment Facility. Over deal. Good morning everyone. ,odays a big day for the mercy Navy Medicine International Response to the coronavirus pandemic we are about to embark the mercy to increase medical capacity in los angeles. An area of our country seeing the greatest impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Fema, state and local agencies efforts in this whole of government approach. Demands al Crisis Response and we are ready to support. Mercy brings edema medical professionals, medical equipments and supplies as they would which all act as a relief valve. So the Health Professionals can focus on covid19. We are not deploying to treat covid19 patients that are taking proactive measures to ensure anyone coming aboard is properly screened for covid19 and mitigate the risk. Has Infection Control procedures just as any hospital. We will have asks andh the country bring relief or they are needed the most. Our hospital ships are uniquely outfitted firm assistance. When the Core Missions around the world, the men and women to the u. S. Navy and mercy team are highly skilled and anxious to assess our communities in support of the response effort. And captain john olmsted, mercy Civil Service master are ready for any questions you have at this time. Please provide your full name and agency prior to asking. Questions come when will the mercy reach l. A. And could you tell us about the personnel on board, how many reservist and activeduty . Thank you for that question. Toanticipate being able begin taking patients the day after they arrive and we want to be there as quickly as we can to support femas efforts, we have a number of reservists joining with her activeduty team. It may change as the mission evolved. Withare active duty navy with a few exceptions. I want to add on the reservist and of yesterday, there were 58, these reservists involvet volunteers their medical professionals their self and divide as not being members of the Blue Community helping the local jurisdiction. We are acutely aware many are helping the local communities. Not doing covid19 are presently is there an end date for this mission or is indefinite . On the activeduty side we expect to top out at 1128 working for the medical Treatment Facility. We will stay there as long as it makes them as directed by higher headquarters. We will take one question from the phone and then back into the room. Laura from politico. No questions at this time. Tom. This is for the captain. For can talk about what you know about the need in los angeles at this point, there are state officials, hospital officials reaching out to you, hospitals filling up and minute relief immediately. If you give us a sense of that and presumably you pull into l. A. , you are pure side, can you is that how that works. Is the lead agency and they are responsible for a picture of the needs and requirements of the local hospital we will take our direction from them. Our attention is to pull in pierce Side Entrance for patients by ground. Do you have any sense at this point, what is the need . Is anyone reaching out or do you wait until you are pure side pierside . They are not reaching out to me directly, fema is coordinating with her folks on the ground to help those relationships. Go to gina harkins on the phone. Wondering if you can explain the logistics of how someone might be treated on the mercy and will doctors and hospitals the referring specific cases there. Definitely taking noncovid infected patients, essentially every patient transfer will be an inner hospital transfer. For a patient who is already an inpatient will be transferred to us, that will come to our intensive care units. It will come to our ward. Theres a broad range of Critical Care and medical care for patients come we have pretty broad capability as well. If they needs to have surgery emergently come we are capable of providing this. I have a question. Are you establishing any plans in case you end up having coronavirus on the ship. Some of these patients are asymptomatic. You may be treating when you didnt know or doesnt have a fever. What would you do in that case and if you could tell us what bases they come from . Ill take the first part of that and let someone take the second part. We identify someone is covid19 positive we would transfer them. As far as the ship of medical professionals, they are coming military Treatment Facilities in the region. In the western region. Certainly can get the specifics for you. To 1000bulk of the 800 Medical Center san diego, Naval Hospital camp pendleton, 29 , clinic in oak harbor, thats where the bulk of them are coming from. Comingre a few personnel to very small singledigit amounts from other facilities. We will go back to the phone. Two quick questions, how many crewmembers in the cruise ship in the crew ship in total. And a question about screening, are you testing, is everyone manning the ship already been tested. It sort of a petri dish on the who is if a crew member perhaps a symptomatically get on the ship, how can you be sure of that. Can you tell us more about this. Medical Treatment Facility side will top out at 1128. There are additional military assets on board as well as force teamction, Public Affairs and supporting elements. Facility planning on staffing nine over 12 operating rooms. Terms of screening for folks everyone is coming on the ship come every civilian is being screened and we wound if we wind up with someone who we diagnose highly likely based on the medical assessment we will be looking to send them off the ship into appropriate preventative measures for any contact they had. Questioning up on this about a symptomatically arrears, is the can to be any sort of Infection Control measures that you would normally have. The could be a symptom added people going on. We are going to comply with wedance, essentially practice Infection Control every day. All thethe same thing mercy and apply additional measures. Back to the phones, carla, voice of america. Thank you so much for doing this. What time is the mercy set to depart . I know you cant talk about the comfort specifically, but how long does it take to undergo maintenance and what can speed up the maintenance process as we are trying to guess when its going to be ready. Your second question i will have to defer you to the Public Affairs officer. With respect to today, we are leaving at 2 00 global time here local time in san diego. Is on the line typing away, can you mute your phone unless youre being asked a question. Theres a lot of interference, thank you. This is for the ships master , the comfort and mercy are both wellknown ships that have done good work, they are also some of the oldest in the navy. The comforter still undergoing maintenance, how is the mercy operationally ship or the, is it ready to go on this mission . Its a Short Mission from san diego to l. A. , but how is doing mechanically . Im captain Jonathan Olmsted the mercy is ready to go, in ship shape. My job is the ships master is to keep the ship ready to go on a five deactivation notice at all times. Rely on the ships motto and thus we are prepared to do. Courtney. I want to make sure i understand what youve laid out. On the amount of time the mercy ,ould be underway, i understand how long you telling the individuals on the ship they will be assigned to the ship for this mission. Im not clear if it was the individuals, is that the people on the ship now . And then i have one other. Thanks. Regarding how long the mission is planned for come we are paired to say stay underway until the need is complete and until it doesnt make sense anymore or as directed. And the number of people . Part, the 1128nd total is what we expect to be once we arrive in l. A. And pick folks pierside, thats our final number. Say, are you deploy for a number of days and weeks and are you prepared to go on to other locations . We are prepared to stay as long as necessary and prepared to move on to whatever destination the direct or as required by had orders. We will take a couple more from the phone. Mary from cbs. Thank you for doing this. Did you choose your staff by balancing against civilian need and medical towns therefrom. Many of them come from the constant theres been discussion of that. Are you working with reserves or the all activeduty . This is rear admiral tim weber. The staff are coming the Military Hospitals allow me to take that one. Exceptiveduty on board the 58 or so reservists i talked about earlier are coming from military Treatment Facilities where they are already previously identified to deploy on the mercy, they know the mercy, appropriate training is done for hospital ship, certainly there is discussion about the use of the reserves at a higher echelon. But for this mission right now it is those activeduty with the exception of those 50 reservists. 58 reservists. We will go to caitlin from stars stripes. What kind ofdo now help you will be providing to patients on the ships, ob gyn care, any types of Longterm Services or is it just trauma care . We are prepared to offer a broad range of medical and Surgical Services both as needed by the hospitals we are supporting. We will not be doing pediatric care on the ship. And i a quick followup. Be had said there will screenings. They are not all getting tested to make sure they are negative before there on the ship . That is correct. There being screened but not tested. Mean . T is the screening initially, andire, follow on to temperature testing and assessment by a medical provider. Thank you. Let us go to lily from ab louis from abc. Question a logistical and then a treatment question. The logistical question is that if mercy is departing this afternoon and it will arrive within the week, why does this say that it will arrive tomorrow . Is captain olmsted, upon departure from san diego, the ship has a number of required operations, tests, and certifications that must be conducted at sea underway prior to any arrival. Will slow down the potential arrival by a couple of days . Is that what you are saying . That is correct. Question ent doing no one when it will arrive . The time that we are under way and he is doing operations specific to the ship, that is the opportunity for the medical Treatment Facility staff to train as a team. I am blessed to have a group of individually, highly skilled medical and other professionals because there are other nonmedical specialties that support the hospital. What we need is time to train as a team so we can provide high quality patient care when we arrive. Is willeatment question you have enough tests aboard if to test for covid if you have a patient who later develop symptoms if they come on board being asymptomatic. Will you have enough or will you have to require the tests come from somewhere else . Stock, andan initial as we see what the demand is, we will use our resupply chain to get more. We will take a couple more questions. Tara, in the room. A quick followup. Will the mercy be docking in l. A. Or in long beach where there are other facilities. You also be carrying a blood bank . A lot of these communities talked about flood donation shortages. Blood donations shortages. We are planning to dock within the port of los angeles. Have a fullyly capable blood bank on the ship. How many units will you be carrying or will you not be carrying units . We will beep carry the play carrying blood units and we will be ramping up when we see the demand. Amanda from cnbc on the phone. I understand that the size of this and the scope will change, but there has to be some baseline operating cost that you can provide us given the fact that these were two lumbering oil tankers converted into oils into hospital ships. I just understand that these are expensive to operate. Sorry. Can you clarify the question, is it operating cost or transition . Can you clarify . Just how expensive what it need to have these vessels taking in patients. With generators and icu beds. Ship,a massive hospital and the costs seem exorbitant, so i was wondering if you could provide any clarity of operational costs. I understand that it will be portside, but if you have any type of number could you give us some sort of guess on. This is admiral weber. The projected budget is not yet determined, and i would refer any follow on to the military pao. Ok. Thank you, that is all we have time for. Gentlemen, do you have any Closing Remarks that you would like to give . This is admiral weber. That ia couple of things would like to pass along. Is, i want to make sure that someone in the health care business, there are actions that we all can take, and you cannot say this enough times, social distancing is the best way to prevent the illness. Everyone isat watching 20 washing their hands 20 seconds or more. Clean and disinfect high touch areas. You have heard this multiple times, whether you are in a Military Hospital onshore, sea or anywhere else. My final comment on the mission thed, the men and women of u. S. Nh ns mercy is all dod staff who serve a higher calling to protect and defend this country. Ish covid19, Navy Medicine delivering medical power to assist our communities in time of need. I could not be prouder of the men and women aboard the mercy. Americans all americans should be as well. Ready to deploy to support fema and local agencies. And wean amazing team are honored to answer the nations call. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] liveashington journal every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up, the heritage foundations Stephen Moore discusses the congressional impact efforts to blunt the impact of the coronavirus on the economy. Then jasons need discusses how some states are postponing primary contests over concerns of the coronavirus outbreak. The responsecusses to the coronavirus. Make sure to watch washington journal live at 7 00 eastern this morning. Join the discussion. Next, President Trump leads a briefing by the parole the Coronavirus Task force updating the governments response. He was joined by Vice President pence as well as medical and health officials
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