A National Disaster Medical System Team is in Kentucky to help expand health care capacity and protect Kentuckians during the COVID-19 spike.
Governor Andy Beshear made the announcement Sunday afternoon that the federal medical team arrived in Kentucky to support health care heroes and residents, increasing staffing and the ability to open more hospital beds.
The NDMS team, comprising a medical officer, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, supply officer, respiratory therapist, four registered nurses, and three paramedics, has mobilized to assist through Sept. 17. The team can help with opening more available beds that had not been used due to lack of staffing. The team is fortifying existing staffing and areas of specialty, including those offered by a respiratory team, and clinicians tasked with ventilator management. The NDMS team can also support emergency department operations, contributing to an increased ability for the facility to treat more patients.
Dr. Steven Stack, the commissioner of the Department for Public Health, said “The actions taken to build on the unprecedented and aggressive actions taken to help control the spread of COVID-19. For 18 months, the seriousness of this pandemic has been stressed. The coronavirus is serious. It kills and can make people extremely sick and for a long time. We’re seeing that the delta variant, which represents most of the current cases of COVID-19, takes dangerousness to a new level. It is a vicious, contagious microbe and is finding its way to younger Kentuckians. We need to continue to do everything we can to prevent its spread. The strongest defenses we have are to get vaccinated if you’re 12 or older and to wear a face mask when you’re indoors.”
Five 10-member FEMA EMS strike teams are on site in Kentucky tasked with transfers and transporting COVID-19 patients. Each team is comprised of five advanced life support ambulances, and each ambulance is staffed with one paramedic and one emergency medical technician (EMT). Each strike team is positioned regionally, in Corbin, Lexington, Louisville, Owensboro, and Somerset. They are centrally dispatched and can respond to any area in the state.
More than 100 Kentucky National Guard members, in teams of 15, have been deployed for a new COVID-19 response mission. So far, hospitals that have received Kentucky National Guard assistance include St. Claire Regional Medical Center, Appalachian Regional Healthcare in Hazard, The Medical Center at Bowling Green, and Pikeville Medical Center.
