At least 19 Tennessee National Guard members have been deployed to two private hospitals at opposite ends of the state to aid with COVID-19 response in order to relieve hospital medical staff – a result of an executive order issued by Gov. Bill Lee last week.
Currently the Tennessee National Guard is providing 11 staffers at testing sites operated by Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis, freeing health care employees to work directly with patients, according to a spokesperson for the guard.
Eight guard staffers are now providing COVID-19 testing at four urgent care centers operated by the Ballad Health hospital system in northeast Tennessee. The centers are in Kingsport, Johnson City, Elizabethton and Bristol.
The governor’s executive order allows trained National and State Guard members to be dispatched to hospitals to “reduce system capacity strain resulting from COVID-19.”
Guardsmen and women with the appropriate skills can perform COVID-19 testing, provide nursing and other hospital services and operate ambulances under Lee’s order. Hospitals and health care facilities must submit their requests in writing justifying the need for assistance. The adjutant general of the Tennessee National Guard and the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health then must jointly approve the requests.