The Navy and Army rushed medical capabilities to the front line in the coronavirus response, with a mission to take non-COVID-19 patients off the hands of local hospitals. But in the first few days, only a trickle of patients have been seen, and nearly 200 life-saving ventilators are held in reserve.
“We received our first patients last night and are ready to receive more,” said USNS Comfort Capt. Patrick Amersbach, who said his ship has seen just three patient referrals from the Javits Center, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s emergency response center in New York City, since it came online earlier this week.
The ship’s commander explained at a Thursday Pentagon briefing that the hospital ship’s 1,000-bed capability will “accept COVID-19-free patients to take some of the pressure off local health systems before the wave hits.”
On the West Coast, the USNS Mercy has an officer embedded in the Los Angeles County medical alert center and now acts as one of the hospitals in its patient transfer network. But Mercy has seen just a handful of patients, none of them COVID-19 patients.
“We are able to actually bring patients aboard and also discharge them effectively,” said Mercy commanding officer Capt. John Rotruck.
The Mercy hospital ship has seen 15 patients and discharged five since it became operational in Los Angeles Saturday.
Neither hospital ship came prepared to treat nor was given a mission to treat COVID-19 patients, their commanders said, but both retain some of the 2,000 badly needed ventilators promised by Defense Secretary Mark Esper last month.
The commander of U.S. Northern Command, Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy tried to explain where the ventilators have gone in a press briefing Wednesday.
“I can tell you there’s 70 on the Mercy and about 50 or so on the Comfort,” he said. “Those are obviously in preparation to be actively used as part of the broader effort.”
The others are in FEMA’s hands, he said.
Meanwhile, the Army holds another 60 ventilators for non-COVID-19 patients in hard-hit Seattle.
“We have been assigned this mission to provide that full-spectrum capability of low acuity to high acuity with a requirement of providing ventilated beds,” said Col. Hope Williamson-Younce, an Army nurse helping to oversee 250 beds in three Army hospitals in a build-out to see patients by early next week at the CenturyLink Field in Seattle.
Keeping the ventilators in reserve is part of maintaining that full spectrum of care, she said.
“We could receive patients here that may have respiratory difficulties or some other kind of disease state that requires ventilation, so we have to be prepared to provide that great care,” she explained. “To move forward in the way ahead, that is a policy question for the Department of Defense.”
At the White House coronavirus task force briefing Wednesday, Esper indicated that the mission of the hospital ships and Army field hospitals could change if necessary.
“They could, if called upon,” he said. “I think the best use for them is, based on their training and how they’re structured and organized, is for trauma.”
