BELVOIR
Face Coverings Required in Exchange, Commissary, Hospital, and other high traffic public areas.
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April 23, 2020
Belvoir Hospital curbside pharmacy rolls into action
Photo by Paul Lara
Mark Long, Fort Belvoir Community Hospital pharmacist, takes a prescription in the hospital’s Rivers Garage, Friday. The hospital’s latest action further protects patients and staff by minimizing traffic in the main pharmacy. By Paul Lara Belvoir Eagle
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fter a month of planning, Fort Belvoir Community Hospital has opened curbside pharmacy service in the now-unused Rivers Garage, according to Lt. Cdr. Jesse Schmidt, the hospital’s pharmacy chief. Schmidt said the hospital’s design presented challenges, since its pharmacy is in the center of the building, next to the main entrance.
“We tried to do a drive-through pharmacy, but there’s no way. The uniqueness of Fort Belvoir Community Hospital’s physical structure makes it really difficult for us to do curbside, because of the distance,” he said. From the pharmacy, Rivers Garage is more than 200 yards away. “It’s taken us a while to figure out how to bridge that logistics gap.” Schmidt said a key implementation was to provide
laptops connected to the pharmacy’s software. “What makes our curbside unique to a lot of the others in the National Capital Region or the DHA is that we were able to take our pharmacy windows and bring them outside,” he said. We’ve been able to extend our electronic network out here and be able to use laptops on wheels and intake them the same we would do at the pharmacy window. We can put them in the system, do the queuing correctly, and no other place does that.” After some trial runs, it was decided to have customers drop off prescriptions on the garage’s first floor, wait at the Community Center parking lot until they receive a text, then pickup filled prescriptions on the second floor. The additional distance required adding 20 government service volunteers to help deliver, as teams of runners constantly shuttle new prescriptions from the pharmacy to the garage. Navy Capt. Cynthia Judy, hospital director, said the new procedure is for patients’ and staff safety. “The entire pharmacy team has been working really hard, over the last few weeks, to make this experience as seamless as possible. It’s all about promoting social
distance and your convenience,” she said, adding that beneficiaries are asked to still wear a face covering when they drive up. Judy suggested activating the prescription before coming in, and go directly to the pick-up location. Prescriptions can be activated by calling the main hospital number, 571-231-3224; Option 2 for pharmacy; then Option 2 again to activate your prescription. The curbside pharmacy is available from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., weekdays. Saturday pickups are offered in the main pharmacy. Schmidt said this process will have continuing patient benefits in the future. “After this is over, we’re going to try to keep the phone activation line, if we can,” he said. “We created an internet form patients can access from home, fill out and submit. Then, all they have to do is come to the pickup line. Not the intake line. We’re trying to give them convenience, as best we can,” Schmidt said. “We are also working on long-term solutions with DHA using automated willcall systems, and automated willcall machines in the lobby. We are taking what we’ve learned from this crisis, to figure out better ways to do things.”
Thermal imaging helps in fight against COVID-19 By Paul Lara Belvoir Eagle
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hermal imagers are forming the first line of defense for installations and public health organizations faced with addressing the risks associated with the global pandemic. When garrison command wanted to add enhanced body temperature scanning as an additional layer of protection for commissary shoppers and employees, the Army Rapid Equipping Force was ready to help. The REF Solution Team Lead, Lt. Col. David Wilson, was able to quickly supply a FLIR Systems T540 tripod-mounted thermal imager to meet the need. “It’s a device capable of measuring temperature at the skin surface. What’s unique about it is that the skin surface temp is no more than two degrees from the core body temp,” Wilson said. “From a A2
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Photo by Paul Lara
A thermal scanner in use at the Fort Belvoir Commissary displays a thermogram, or heat map, April 6. Hotter areas are shown in brighter orange and yellow. It only takes a second for the imager to report that the temperature of the woman is normal.
Face Covers for troops
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safe distance of six to eight feet, the camera is designed to find the hotspot on a subject’s face. A person’s natural hotspot is by the tear ducts on the inner edge of your eye. It focuses on that area and reads the temp from that area.” Wilson explained the operators create a baseline, by scanning up to 10 individuals with normal temperatures. After scanning each of them, it creates an average and is calibrated and ready to be used. It is configured so operators get an audible alert for any body temperature more than three degrees above the baseline. When that occurs, operators conduct an additional reading with a different, hand-held forehead thermometer. If the high temperature is confirmed that person will not be allowed to enter the facility. During a recent Facebook town hall, Col.
CYS celebrates 40
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Spring Cleaning