CAMP HUMPHREYS, REPUBLIC OF KOREA -- Eighth Army commanding general, Lt. Gen. Willard “Bill” Burleson, and Command Sgt. Maj. Robert Cobb, Eighth Army senior enlisted advisor, visited the Brian D. Allgood Army Community Hospital and the 549th Hospital Center’s (HC) COVID-19 operation facilities on Oct. 14. Colonel Huy Q. Luu, 549th HC and BDAACH commander, and his staff provided a brief overview and a tour of the three main facilities offering insight and understanding of command and staff priorities and capabilities, especially during the pandemic.
The tour was designed to provide a snapshot of daily patient care and to highlight the unit’s tireless COVID mitigation efforts to protect the force in South Korea, which has been ongoing since February. Throughout the visit, Burleson and Cobb met with medical Soldiers on the frontline of fighting the coronavirus.
During the visit to the emergency department’s COVID tent, the two leaders witnessed its readiness to respond to possible surges of COVID screening demands and the accuracy and speediness of the clinical laboratory. Arriving to Inpatient Behavioral Health, they witnessed the patient-centered clinical environment and received a briefing about the Behavioral Health Service Line’s efforts to help troops’ mental fitness during quarantine and possible isolation period upon arrival to Korea.
Following the visit to BDAACH, the group then headed to the COVID Isolation Facility (ISOFAC) operated by 121st Field Hospital. The ISOFAC staff consists of medics, nurses and doctors, who shared their operational procedures. After getting to know the daily operation, Burleson and Cobb put on personal protective equipment and went into the negative-pressured area where the real-life COVID positive patients get monitored and treated. The staff shared a depiction of the patients’ time in ISOFAC.
The general and the CSM continued to see the hard work from medical Soldiers at the U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys Reception Center. It is known as the initial stop for all incoming Army personnel under United States Forces Korea to receive initial COVID tests and has been operating as the USFK’s gatekeeper to protect the bubble. United States Forces Korea requires two consecutive negative tests in order to be released from quarantine. The 502nd Field Hospital oversees the medical screening at the facility with the help of Soldiers from throughout Eighth Army’s major subordinate commands.
The 549th HC is the only unit in the U.S. Army with a dual mission of providing Armistice Healthcare and medical support to the operational force throughout the ROK. Since February, 549th HC has taken on the additional mission of providing medical support to USFK and Eighth Army to protect the force from COVID-19.
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