Photo By Sgt. Nicholas Goodman | FARMINGTON, N.M. -- U.S. Navy Cmdr. Arriel Atienza , assigned to Navy Medical...... read more read more
Navy Medicine’s recent deployment to the Four Corners region of the American Southwest didn’t rely on a sextant to navigate the course.
It was care, compassion and concern for those in need which piloted Navy Medicine physicians, nurses and hospital corpsmen to help handle an surge of COVID-related patients and assist with saving lives at San Juan Regional Medical Center, Farmington, New Mexico.
“COVID-19 is the single most lethal domestic biologic enemy in the history of our country. I was honored to answer the call to duty to defend America,” said Cmdr. Arriel E. Atienza, Naval Hospital Bremerton family physician and chief medical officer of the Navy Medicine deployment effort.
The Four Corners region – New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah – includes the Navajo, Hopi, Ute and Zuni Native American nations with SJRMC providing medical care to the approximately 150,000 patient catchment area.
Leading to the arrival of Atienza and Navy Medicine’s medical team from Dec. 6, 2021, until Feb. 4, 2022, the hospital had for weeks been overwhelmed beyond the norm, severely taxing hospital staff.
According to Atienza, the medical team of approximately 20 personnel were deployed at the request of the state of New Mexico, as directed by and in coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and in coordination with U.S. Northern Command under the Department of Defense (DoD) to augment SJRMC response – and the state’s healthcare system – against the highly infectious disease.
There were individual as well as team challenges for Atienza and the military medical personnel he accompanied.
“The greatest personal challenge was complete and total immersion in hospitalist inpatient medicine after a nearly five-year hiatus from the in-depth, ‘in the trenches’ use of those clinical skills,” said Atienza. “A lot of what I did as a hospitalist is the norm for inpatient medicine and fully expected of someone assigned to that role, just not the stuff that I regularly did at other assignments, like with the III Marine Expeditionary Force in Okinawa.”
Along with those admitted for COVID, there were a host of other critically ill patients needing care. Among the personable, hands-on treatment he provided as a hospitalist were tasks which included setting up a patient’s meal tray while at the bedside while performing a history and physical exam, and deriving a diagnostic and testing plan for a hospitalized patient to confirm or discount a new diagnosis of cancer.
There were also honest and difficult moments, such as, “telling a patient that his alcoholic liver disease was so bad that statistically he had less than six months to live unless he received a liver transplant,” recalled Atienza.
The greatest team challenge for Atienza was coordinating and clarifying his team’s roles, responsibilities and duties between the expectations of the Navy and the desires of the overwhelmed hospital system at SJRMC.
“The Navy Medicine teams deployed domestically for these missions want to, and are expected to, jump in feet first and establish some element of control over a situation. This could have been problematic when the hospital we were assigned to support already had systems in place that worked for them and their recognized community. Our job was to strategically insert into the existing systems to provide tangible relief that would make a felt difference at the hospital that the Navy would recognize as tangible, quantifiable, reportable, and effective,” explained Atienza.
With the primary focus of Navy Medicine on operational readiness, Atienza affirms that priority was evident in their daily collaboration and work with the hospital staff. Rear Adm. Bruce Gillingham, Navy surgeon general and chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery traveled to the locale to see for himself.
“The surgeon general himself visited our team, Dec. 13, 2021, and personally reinforced that our mission, as part of a joint-tasked domestic medical response team, was the epitome of contributions to his priorities. Hard to get more poignant than that,” Atienza related.
As the chief medical officer directly overseeing the Navy support efforts, Atienza and his team completed 10,500 man-hours in providing care for over 5,440 patient encounters in the region severely impacted by the pandemic, which during their time there had one of the highest percentages of positive cases per capita in the U.S.
Their collective as well as individual efforts did not go unnoticed by Navy leadership. Under Atienza’s leadership, 19 Joint Commendation Medals were produced, along with14 Armed Forces Service Medals and nine Humanitarian Service Medals. The team also achieved 13 certifications for Advanced Cardiac Life Support and Pediatric Advanced Life Support.
Atienza was noted for “demonstrating impressive inpatient skills, attention to detail, and great care for his patients.” As the de facto chief of staff he was cited for ensuring mission accomplishment and reinforcing the staff’s personal and professional needs. As senior physician, he provided critical counsel regarding individual medical and personal challenges in handling all team responsibilities.
A Bremerton, Wash. native, Atienza attests that he has “literally been around the world.”
He has been assigned on both coasts, from the II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and with Fleet Surgical Team Four, Norfolk Virginia, to NMRTC/Naval Hospital Bremerton, twice actually, as a resident physician and back again as staff physician, division officer and medical director for the Immunization Clinic. He has been stationed overseas for several tours to Okinawa, Japan, with the III MEF as a group surgeon, then as a brigade surgeon at U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa. Even before his Navy Medicine career took off, as a surface warfare officer, there was a tour on the guided missile destroyer USS Momsen (DDG 92) and the Supply-class fast combat support ship USS Rainier (AOE 7).
But not to the Southwestern U.S. in an official capacity.
Until now.
“For a medical provider deployed domestically in the fight against COVID-19, that means taking off the rank, listening compassionately to a severely ill American citizen laying in a bed in a medically underserved area or in an exhausted hospital, and devising and coordinating a treatment plan that increases their likelihood for health and recovery. I am privileged to see and support the Navy Department and Navy Medicine across its vast influence over the wellbeing of our citizens and our country,” stated Atienza.
| Date Taken: | 02.24.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 02.24.2022 11:15 |
| Story ID: | 415212 |
| Location: | FARMINGTON , NM, US |
| Web Views: | 158 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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