Photo By Staff Sgt. Ryan Getsie | Sgt. John Huss with Joint Task Force 17 works at the entry point at the Cashman...... read more read more
LAS VEGAS – Sgt. John Huss with the 72nd Military Police Company, and soon to be Mineral County Sheriff cadet, went above and beyond with Joint Task Force 17 by personally helping facilitate, organize, and streamline the extra vaccine doses at the Cashman Center in Las Vegas.
“I like to help people,” Huss said. “I enjoy seeing the positive changes made while serving the public.”
Huss has been serving his country and community with the Nevada Army National Guard since Feb. 2011. It’s been a long road for this Soldier since Fort Leonard Wood, where he graduated with the Military Police School. Currently, he serves with JTF17 and he’s been helping his local community with the COVID-19 outbreak since July of 2020.
Huss is one of over 280 Soldiers currently serving on orders for JTF17, but what made him stand out is when he decided to take charge in creating a more efficient process for people on the COVID-19 vaccine standby list.
“It all started with a Facebook group (Las Vegas Vaccine Hunters),” Huss said. “At the beginning it was a challenge because everything was so new, but our goal from the start was to be better organized.”
After seeing the challenges facing his team with the standby list, without hesitation, Huss took charge and began to work with his chain of command. He identified certain areas of concern based upon social media intelligence, relayed that information, sat down with his leadership, and they developed a proactive approach to solving the problem of wait times.
“At first the wait list was on the fly and was comprised of just a list of names.” Huss said. “I saw this and thought how can we make this better? We began to prioritize the list based upon the Southern Nevada Heath Districts age guidelines and began to really engage with people on a personal level when they would arrive.”
Officer in charge at the site, 2nd Lt. Samirah Furman, commented on Huss’s work with the public over the last few months.
“I’m genuinely amazed how he’s taken on this responsibility,” Furman said. “He’s adapted to numerous challenges and he’s overcome every obstacle put in his path and turned them into success.”
Facebook member, Mark Smith, commented about the great work the Guard and Sgt. Huss has been doing at Cashman.
“I especially want to call your attention to Sgt. Huss, who is assigned to the Cashman vaccination facility.” Smith wrote. “He has helped provide a community service with a professionalism in his work to ensure that every possible dose is administered. He manages the process and openly communicates in a clear and precise manner, answering every single question of a crowd over 100 people every morning.”
Huss didn’t stop at helping organize the standby list. When people showed up in the morning he took a personal interest and began to interact with them as they waited for information. Instead of just getting on the list and coming back later in the day, his team would assist with real time dose availability, walked the public through creating an appointment, and got them in the door for vaccinations.
“My team is the first set of people you will meet when you come to Cashman,” Huss said. “It’s about customer service. The smaller amount of people I have on the list means we’re getting more people in the door and vaccinated. The day we get rid of the list, that’s a good day because it means everyone’s getting in. ”
Clark County hit 719,000 doses administered as of Mar. 17, up from 500,000 just a short time ago, according to the Southern Nevada Health District. It was also reported that Nevada had the ninth-highest utilization rate in the U.S. – using 91% of its allocated vaccines compared to the national average of 85%.
For more information on the COVID-19 vaccine please visit https://covid.southernnevadahealthdistrict.org/
| Date Taken: | 03.24.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 03.24.2021 18:45 |
| Story ID: | 392224 |
| Location: | LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, US |
| Web Views: | 196 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
This work, Las Vegas Vaccine Hunters find hero in local Guard Soldier, by SSG Ryan Getsie, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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