MC4 Supports Army Units Worldwide in Combating COVID-19

FORT DETRICK, Md. – Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care (MC4) is responding to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic at multiple locations across the country and overseas with equipment and direct technical and training support to dozens of Army units deployed to aid COVID-19 efforts.

MC4 teams consist of healthcare information technology (IT) subject matter experts (SMEs), system administrators, and a variety of training personnel specializing in on-site support. The teams conduct software and hardware maintenance and system refreshes, updates and training.

To date, MC4 has deployed nearly 200 MC4 systems, which contain electronic health record (EHR) software that collects and maintains health data from patient encounters, now being used to support COVID-19 documentation. At Darnall Army Medical Center, located at Fort Hood, Texas, MC4 is providing training and support for medics and providers.

Darnall provides services for some 42,000 service members, families and veterans. Here, the 581st Medical Company Area Support (MCAS) is pre-screening COVID-19 patients at the hospital while using MC4 systems.

Demand is increasing at Fort Hood, where “we were [initially] one of only two sites transmitting encounters– here at the 581st, and on the USNS Comfort [in New York],” said Officer-in-Charge 1st Medical Brigade S6 Lt. Col. Jason Weir. To date they have had more than 30 patient encounters at Fort Hood.

At the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City, MC4 is providing fielding and training support to Active Army, Reserve and National Guard units setting up treatment rooms and equipment for the care of non-COVID-19 patients, freeing up hospitals to care for those most affected by the virus. The temporary field hospital at the Javits Center can house 2,910 beds, making it one of the largest hospitals in America in a region hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

So far the team has assisted with more than 100 patient encounters at the Javits Center, using MC4 technology like the HALO (Health Assessment Lite Operations) software, said Forward Support Team Chief Lt. Col. Aaron Northrup, 6th Medical Logistics Management Center (MLMC). In a note to MC4 Operations and Logistics Management Director Skip Boston, Lt. Col. Northrup shared “kudos to the MC4 team! Thanks for the support.” 

At the CenturyLink Convention Center in Seattle, Washington, MC4 has deployed seven Field Support Representatives (FSRs) to assist with over-the-shoulder user training and setup of MC4 Operational Health IT systems and software used to electronically document out-patient and in-patient health care; place orders for lab/radiology/pharmacy; and order Class VIII medical supplies and pharmaceuticals.

In some instances, MC4 personnel are arriving on-site to support units who haven’t yet received their hardware systems. On March 28, an MC4 team arrived to support the expeditionary 627th Hospital Center (HC) deployed from Fort Carson, Colorado. MC4 is also assisting the Navy with their efforts in New Orleans, Louisiana, by supplying MC4 laptop systems.  

In South Korea, one of the regions first affected by the corona virus pandemic, the Army’s 121st Field Hospital (FH) are using the telehealth capabilities from MC4’s regional office in Korea to allow remote access to providers at other Army medical facilities, as well as conducting user training at the 121st FH Isolation (ISO) Center on the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application - Theater (AHLTA-T), a system that enables deployable medical staff to digitally document and update outpatient care and simple inpatient hold capabilities for forward resuscitative medical units.

MC4’s site lead, Craig McDowell, was on hand to update patient records and set up the Application Virtual Hosting Environment (AVHE) that allowed the 121st to remotely access hospital records in coordination with the 65th Medical Brigade and the 1st Signal Brigade, 8th Army. 

In addition to on-site support, MC4’s help desk has received a substantial number of calls for support from various units, including the 47th Combat Support Hospital (CSH) out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), which requested assistance with the Theater Medical Information Program (TMIP) Composite Health Care System (CHCS) Cache (TC2) software. This software is used for inpatient management, laboratory, radiology and pharmacy ordering.

Other medical units mobilized for the COVID-19 relief effort include the 807th Ohio National Guard and the 307th Medical Brigade, an Army Reserve unit also based in Ohio; the 131st FH located at Fort Bliss, Texas - an active duty unit that incorporates Army medicine’s updated modular design and has an 88-bed hospital capability; and the 56th Multifunctional Medical Battalion (MMB), with its three Area Support Medical Companies (ASMCs) and field ambulances from JBLM. MC4 personnel are standing by to support efforts once the destinations for these units have been determined.