A massive, joint military training exercise will bring free health, vision and dental care, among other much-needed services, to residents in Ka’u and Ocean View, beginning today. A massive, joint military training exercise will bring free health, vision and dental
A massive, joint military training exercise will bring free health, vision and dental care, among other much-needed services, to residents in Ka‘u and Ocean View, beginning today.
Organizers say the nine-day event, running through June 12, could provide health care services to between 6,000 and 10,000 residents in the medically underserved region of East Hawaii, saving them a combined value of between $2.5 million and $3 million.
“And that’s only in billable charges. There’s other sorts of savings, including how much people could save by not flying to Oahu or Maui for treatment,” said Air Force Reserve Col. Jerry Arends, mission director for Tropic Care 2013.
A partnership between the U.S. Department of Defense Reserve Affairs and the Hawaii District Health Office, Tropic Care will operate two separate sites on Hawaii Island at Ka‘u High and Pahala Elementary School and at Ocean View Community Center, as part of a larger exercise that will also help communities on Maui, Molokai and Lanai.
“Looking at all four islands, we’re probably looking at upwards of 30,000 or 40,000 people served. The big players are usually dentistry and optometry, mainly because many people may have health insurance, but often those services aren’t included in coverage,” Arends said.
“We’ll be offering dental care, like tooth extractions, fillings, cleanings, as well as optometry. … We’ll have a Navy team that we’ll be sending prescriptions to that will be fabricating eyeglasses and then sending them back to the island. We did it in March on Kauai, and we distributed about 3,000 pairs of glasses.”
A team of 75, made up of Army National Guard, Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve and Army National Reserve members, is in Ka‘u, while a 40-person team made up of National Guardsmen and Reservists is in Ocean View.
Services will include physical exams, dentistry, optometry, medication review and nutrition education. In addition to the health-related screenings, there will even be mechanics on hand in Ocean View to help repair vehicles or generators that some residents there might rely on to provide power, Arends added.
The exercise is part of the Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs’ Innovative Readiness Training program, which provides “real world training opportunities for our service members and units to prepare them for their wartime missions while supporting the needs of America’s underserved communities,” according to the IRT website, irt.defense.gov.
“Its principal mission is to provide a way for the Reserve component members to do their annual tour, learning what it would be like to respond to a natural disaster really quickly — establish a clinic, feed thousands of people, and other components,” Arends said. “But, of course, it has a huge secondary benefit that we get to help these medically underserved areas, areas with low income or high unemployment.”
Other missions have included setting up clinics in Alabama, Native American reservations, rural Alaska, and other U.S. states, territories and protectorates.
Also participating will be Hawaii Island Cardiovascular, whose volunteer cardiologists, nurse practitioners, ultrasound techs and others will help to screen more than 550 people for cardiovascular disease. The nonprofit organization will have workers on hand this Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Ka‘u High to perform checks on blood pressure, body mass index, cholesterol, A1C, oxygen consumption, and EKG and echocardiographs.
All clinics will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., closing early at 12 p.m. on the final day, June 12. Services will be provided free of charge, and patients will be seen on a first come, first served basis. Organizers recommended attendees pack a lunch, as there may be very long waits.
