Friday, December 03, 2021
Medical help for patients, support for staff during COVID-19 surge begins today
Beaumont Hospital, Dearborn is welcoming 23 military medical personnel today from the U.S. Army, sent by the Department of Defense to assist during the health system’s fourth COVID-19 surge.
“Thank you for being here,” David Claeys, co-chief operating officer of Beaumont Health and president of Beaumont hospitals in Dearborn and Farmington Hills, said. “It’s a huge help for our team and we all appreciate your assistance as we experience another surge.”
The team was assigned after a recent request by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer for help.
The team officially begins its 30-day assignment of actively working with patients today. A small advance team met with Beaumont, Dearborn leaders and staff Monday to discuss logistics. The medical team assisting in Dearborn participated in orientation and training Wednesday and Thursday.
“We know this is a challenging time,” said Lt. Colonel Stephen Duryea, the officer in charge of the DOD’s Medical Response Team. “This highly trained medical team with experience in critical care situations is eager to help care for patients and support the Beaumont team.”
The team was most recently deployed to Tupelo, Mississippi, two months ago, and includes:
- 14 critical care nurses
- Four doctors - two internists and two trained in pulmonary critical care medicine
- Two respiratory therapists
- A three-member command and control team
The team’s focus will be Beaumont, Dearborn’s ICU units, which are experiencing a large influx of COVID-19 patients as well as non-COVID-19 patients. Currently, Beaumont is caring for more than 600 COVID-19 patients across the health system, including more than 100 at Beaumont, Dearborn.
“We are very glad to assist our community when they need emergency medical care,” Beaumont Health CEO John Fox said. “This federal team will allow our busy, busy staff to continue to provide compassionate, extraordinary care as our COVID-19 numbers rise and we continue to experience staffing challenges, like many other hospitals across the country.”
The assistance is part of the U.S. Army North COVID-19 Hospital Support, a joint military operation which began in August 2021. Since then, approximately 435 military medical personnel from the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy have been helping treat COVID-19 patients alongside civilian health care providers in hospitals in 13 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Tennessee, Utah and Washington. The effort, wholly funded by the Department of Defense, is a support program of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
