Military Medical Team Aids Saginaw’s Covenant Healthcare with Rising Hospitalizations

The impact of the Army’s 22-person medical crew’s aid is already being felt as a sigh of relief for Covenant medical workers in Saginaw.

Officially arriving this Sunday; Medical Response team lead-officer, Jocephus Carlile, spoke on how the assistance they’ll be providing over the next 30 days already has some doctors and nurses emotional.

Carlile says a lot of healthcare workers across the country are struggling, and are often emotional when crews like his arrive to help take some of the workload, as well as emotional load, off the shoulders of doctors and nurses who have been working tirelessly against COVID-19 for nearly 2 years.

After reporting more than 100 COVID-19 patients, 2 dozen of which are in intensive care, and total hospitalizations putting facilities at nearly 98% capacity; Covenant Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Birchmeier, says aid provided by the military medical unit is something that the hospital is lucky to have since much of the world still struggles with the pandemic and the growing number of COVID variants that stem from it.

Birchmeier says hospitalization numbers are up not just because of COVID, but because of other treatments patients have needed but were forced to delay because of various Government restrictions.

In addition to the already-scheduled 30 days,  the military crew could be stationed for up to more 3 months if deemed necessary after a review of hospital needs in the coming weeks.