Photo By Master Sgt. Andrew Jackson | Lt. Col. James Faumuina, 154th Medical Group, Detachment 1 commander and 1st Lt Gloria...... read more read more
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The Guam and Hawaii National Guards participated in a virtual Subject Matter Expert Exchange (SMEE) with the plans and programing division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in the first days of December 2020. The National Guard’s State Partnership Program facilitated this SMEE. Normally during a table-top planning scenario in a SMEE, the planners are presented with a theoretical or historical scenario in order to build a response. However, over the three day virtual engagement, the medical planning team from each participating entity presented their real-world COVID-19 response actions to date and plans for the future actions.
“This is a medical and operational SMEE looking at the COVID-19 response for the military, but also looking at how we have integrated the response with the civilian sector,” said Lt. Col. James Faumuina, 154th Medical Group, Detachment 1 commander. “The Hawaii Guard presented our work with the State Dept. of Health (DOH) to flatten the curve. Specifically, our COVID mapping efforts and our Task Force Medical support. Guam presented their efforts to support the government and the Philippines showed the mass array of efforts they have been using to respond.”
The response in the three disparate geographical areas has been varied in some aspects, but still had the foundation of some basic tactics; encouraging social distancing, practicing proper hygiene, utilizing limited lockdowns, and conducting mass testing.
The largest challenge of the three day virtual SMEE was overcoming the 18 to 20 hour time difference. So, while participants in Guam and the Philippines met in the early morning hours, Hawaii was meeting in late afternoon the day before.
The SPP is a joint Department of Defense security cooperation program, managed and administered by the National Guard Bureau, executed and coordinated by the geographic Combatant Commands with personnel provided by the National Guard of the respective partner states. The Guam and Hawaii National Guard share the partnership with the Philippines.
Overall, the information presented served as validation of the work the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Hawaii and Guam National Guards have been doing in the years prior to 2020 to build relationships with the civilian healthcare entities in each nation and state. The Hawaii National Guard’s medical planners have an over 10-year relationship with the Hawaii (DOH) and have worked with then in underserved communities. This helped reinforce the messaging in those communities and throughout the State of Hawaii. This positive proactive partnership has been an example shared with Guam and the Philippines in past pandemic SMEEs, which have been an annual event for at least the past five years.
One of the key areas of discussion was how to communicate with medical planners in the civilian health care sectors who often don’t have a tactical focus.
“The military has mobile capability and skill sets that frames our way at problem solving, “ said Faumuina. “COVID-19 is the largest and most complex problem we have ever faced. Trying to merge our way of doing business with the civilian response is a big piece of that puzzle. These lesson and examples are what we are going to take away from this exchange to help with future operations.”
During a normal SMEE, the scenario being discussed and analyzed is completed, but the COVID pandemic is not over. Therefore, part of the discussion focused on future distribution of a vaccine. There have been mass testing and drive-thru flu vaccination events in the COVID response. These efforts in the Philippines, Guam, and Hawaii were examined by the medical planners as examples to create the future vaccine distribution plans.
| Date Taken: | 12.03.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 12.09.2020 20:15 |
| Story ID: | 384615 |
| Location: | HONOLULU, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 165 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Medical Planners from the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii compare COVID-19 Response, by MSgt Andrew Jackson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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