Guard to assist JRMC in effort against covid
Jefferson Regional Medical Center is among nine hospitals that will receive assistance from the Arkansas National Guard to fight covid-19 beginning Tuesday, according to a news release.
Forty National Guardsmen will assist health care facilities in the state with covid-19 testing in order to help protect residents and meet testing demand in the current covid-19 surge.
Soldiers will be located at facilities in Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Jonesboro, Little Rock, Mountain Home, Pine Bluff, Rogers and Springdale.
“The National Guard assignments will allow us to increase community testing for covid to meet growing demand,” said JRMC’s Wendy Talbot.
Bob Oldham, the National Guard’s public affairs specialist, said the two National Guardsmen will join 10 others in Pine Bluff who have been helping the Arkansas Health Department with its covid response.
Oldham said the hospitals had reached out to their county judges or emergency services office and that those entities had alerted the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management that help was needed.
Consequently, at the request of the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management, 40 National Guardsmen from the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team will deploy to hospitals in eight Arkansas cities.
Guardsmen will report for in-processing Monday at Camp Joseph T. Robinson at North Little Rock. They will report to their assigned hospitals on Tuesday. Their initial orders are for 30 days, which may be extended or curtailed as conditions dictate, according to the release.
The National Guardsmen are being sent at the request of hospital administrators at each location to assist staff with the recent spike the state is experiencing in covid-19 cases and the desire of Arkansans to seek testing.
Guardsmen will be working at the following sites: four guardsmen are going to Medical Associates of Northwest Arkansas at Fayetteville; four to Mercy Hospital at Fort Smith; six to St.
Bernards Medical Center at Jonesboro; four to Northeast Arkansas Baptist Memorial Hospital at Jonesboro; six to Baptist Health Medical Center at Little Rock; two to Baxter Regional Health System at Mountain Home; two to Jefferson Regional Hospital at Pine Bluff; six to Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas at Rogers; and six to Washington Regional Medical Center at Springdale.
The Arkansas National Guard assumes support roles to augment civil authorities, where needed and directed by the governor, to help in a crisis, according to the release. Byron Tate, with the Pine Bluff Commercial, contributed to this story.