I have been interviewed several times regarding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Huntsville Center efforts in support of the nation’s COVID pandemic response. In each, I have been able to bring out factors I thought were important to our success. For the record, I would like to highlight what I feel were the critical elements: leadership, teamwork, situational awareness and subject matter expertise.
In better times, our work is considered and deliberate. We help create the benchmark for medical project delivery that makes the Department of Defense an industry leader.
We facilitate district delivery of an environment of care that enables DOD providers to deliver a world-class standard of care in support of service men and women, their families, retirees, and veterans. Outside of design review and construction support, we conduct research, seek feedback and write the criteria applied to these facilities. We collaborate with professional groups to help create the codes.
USACE is the design and construction agent that supports the Army and the nation with military construction and civil works programs, projects and products. The Center is an enterprise force multiplier with experience and expertise that is broad and deep. In this emergency, we were called upon to engage directly and immediately with state and other authorities to fill the gap between public health needs and available facility resources.
Leadership, starting at the top of the organization, allowed us to act with an “expeditionary mentality” that enabled us to get in front of the need just in time to make a difference. As our partners in Health and Human Services and the states moved into action, we were able to present facility solutions, allowing them to focus on the critical elements of staffing, training, equipment and public health.
Leadership is about character that builds credibility. It is grounded in our organization’s values. Good leaders set the conditions for team success by providing clear guidance and intent. Inspired leadership is based on trust. Developed in better times, it motivates us to give our best in a way that is personal – you want to prove you deserve that trust. That trust is enduring.
“Leader” is not a title. It is a calling, a service, an action. A leader’s ultimate goal is to sacrifice without resentment on behalf of others in order to accomplish a mission. Leaders must be empathetic, willing to be held accountable for the actions of others and be technically competent. Through example and effort, everyone in the Center proved they are leaders.
Teamwork is a word thrown around casually; it should not be. No one changes the world alone. Diversity breeds synergy, trust builds confidence, shared hardship forges lasting bonds. Colleagues working together to accomplish a mission, counting each other to do the right thing, and deliver the best products possible in the time available – that is what enables leaders to make conscious, risk-based decisions, and then execute boldly.
In our response, the Medical Facilities Mandatory Center of Expertise (MCX) and Standardization managed the medically unique features of the Alternate Care Sites (ACS), and the Center “proper” did the heavy lifting creating products for “the rest of the building” to include helping to create contracting templates and performance statements of work. The respective districts executed with the sense of urgency necessary.
The USACE New York District and North Atlantic Division by necessity were first to execute. They helped create ACS products while simultaneously conducting site assessments. They acted selflessly and professionally, freely sharing lessons learned with the Center and the larger community as this pandemic rolled across the country.
Our partners in the Defense Health Agency, Navy, Air Force and VA gave their time unstintingly. They helped us understand not just the environment of care, but equipment, staffing and clinical operations essential to delivering a good baseline product--one that could be continuously improved, while providing teams in the field flexibility to use critical judgment.
Situational awareness was essential to being prepared with a strategic response. We had been tracking the novel coronavirus since the New Year. As it became clear that the outbreak had pandemic potential, we began to study facility “solutions,” first notionally, then with more urgency and specificity. By early March, we learned enough about the virus, how it spread, its health impacts and possible treatments, to work up tentative facility designs and conversions. By the time the call from the Chief of Engineers came, the MCX and Huntsville Center had the initial plans.
Subject matter expertise: You have to know the rules so you know how and when to break them. This mission was our NASA Apollo 13 moment: failure was not an option. We had to give districts, states and local authorities solutions they could implement using resources on hand that would provide the essentials now. I ask you to think about the ideas we developed and products we created, literally overnight, that enabled the Corps to deliver:
• Requirements for alternative/ emergency standards of care
• Guidance for existing facilities to expand in-house capacity
• Engineering that adapted to what we learned about virus behavior and treatment standards
• Designs standards for easily converted, readily available facilities
• Business rules and site assessment checklists
• Full disciplinary requirements
• Consolidated and actionable input from partners
• Contracting and counsel guidance
• Performance work specifications and supporting products for multiple scenarios
• Lab verified mock-ups
• Unified guidance to ensure districts understood how to employ these products in coordination with local authorities and healthcare providers
• Responses to RFIs and disseminated lessons learned – constant two-way communications
• An assessment on how to “mothball” facilities that grew into design modularization
• Continuous monitoring, research, and gathering of clinical and engineering feedback
• Responding to emergent taskings and positively handing over those better dealt with by others
• Sustainment of work in other product lines
When the nation called, we were ready, and we met the mission. We have a right to be proud. However, this is no time for a victory lap. From a public health, an economic, and a humanitarian standpoint, the costs of this pandemic are not just enormous; they are and will remain for some time incalculable. Now is a time for sober reflection, careful consideration and deliberate planning of our future courses of action. As engineers and architects who serve the public, we need to do our best, fast.
This article was written by Anthony J. Travia III, PE, CFM, Chief, Medical Facilities Mandatory Center of Expertise and Standardization, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville.
A photo to accompany this article is available on DVIDS: Photo ID# 6169786
| Date Taken: | 10.05.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 11.02.2020 14:42 |
| Story ID: | 380269 |
| Location: | HUNTSVILLE, AL, US |
| Web Views: | 20 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Rapid, coordinated response to pandemic highlights strengths of Huntsville Center, by Kristen Bergeson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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