Phoenix VA holds joint exercise with Arizona National Air Guard
The Phoenix VA held a joint exercise for the National Disaster Medical System at the 161 Air Refueling Wing, Goldwater Air National Guard Base in Phoenix, Oct. 24.
The NDMS is a partnership between the Departments of Health & Human Services (HHS), Defense (DoD) Homeland Security (DHS) and Veterans Affairs (VA). The execution of NDMS is dependent on pre-determined Patient Reception Areas (Major U.S. Cities) which community Clinical Care Services and/or Healthcare related services, Military bases, Commercial Airports, Emergency Management Agencies, Public Health Departments, EMS, Fire, Police, Red Cross, Salvation Army, Humane Society and other volunteers team-up to receive/transport and provide essential care for evacuated medial patients and their Non-Medical Attendees.
“The Phoenix VA is an FCC, federal coordinating center, so in the event of an any huge national disaster, we would coordinate with other states in order to receive patients, if need be,” said Matthew Balady, Phoenix VA Assistant Emergency Manager.
The disaster scenario was an earthquake in California, and due to overflow of local hospitals, the California Air National Guard was required to transport patients to Arizona to receive care, where members of the VA medical staff and others were ready to receive them.
“Basically since 9/11, we started speaking the same language,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Tara Norris, 161st Air Refueling Wing Medical Administrative Officer. “So, this exercise is about practicing that language, and making sure that in the event we’re activated, a lot of this is muscle memory for our medics.”
For the exercise, the California ANG flew in a C-130, allowing the emergency responders like Phoenix, Glendale, Scottsdale, Mesa firefighters, and nurses to practice moving patients from the plane into a safe location for processing.
“The idea is to simulate receiving the patients on the runway, moving them into the hangar, then transporting them to a hospital ready to receive them,” said Balady. “Our partners are huge for that. “We’re the coordinating facility, but we try to help as much as possible, to the point that now we’re trying to integrate VA clinical staff into the fire staff that would primarily be handling all the patient care. The VA is responsible for patient tracking. I think it solidifies our community partnerships. With us being the FCC for Phoenix, we work in conjunction and work well with our community partners. Exercises test our ability to accomplish to operate together, and where our weak spots are. We don’t want to find out our failing parts when we’re activated.”