JACKSONVILLE, Fla. –
Capt. Teresa Allen turned over leadership of Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command (NMRTC) Jacksonville, Naval Hospital (NH) Jacksonville, and the Jacksonville Market to Capt. Sharon House during a ceremony at the hospital on August 5.
The event was broadcast live for staff, patients, and the public.
Rear Adm. Matthew Case, Commander, Naval Medical Forces Atlantic presided over NMRTC Jacksonville’s change of command. Dr. Brian C. Lein, assistant director, Defense Health Agency presided over the change of authority for NH Jacksonville and the Jacksonville Market. Cmdr. Juan Rosario, director for administration of NMRTC Jacksonville, NH Jacksonville, and the Jacksonville Market, served as master of ceremonies.
Case commended Allen’s leadership, commitment, and people-centered approach as director of NH Jacksonville and commander of NMRTC Jacksonville. “Your commitment to ensuring a medically ready force and a ready medical force is impressive,” said Case. “Your leadership during a global pandemic, assisted in the administering of more than 80,000 COVID-19 vaccines in the Northeast Florida community, all while safely providing routine and preventive health care to the diverse patient population of active duty, retirees, and families. You and your staff effectively transitioned 673 civilian personnel from the Department of the Navy to the Department of Defense, ensuring the first fully completed transition and certification of a Navy market. Thank you for a job well done, keeping our Navy and Marine Corps family healthy, ready, and on the job.”
Case also remarked that House comes to NH Jacksonville with a great track record and impressive credentials.
Allen thanked the staff for focusing on the patient, taking care of themselves and each other, and leading in times of great change.
“It has been an honor and privilege to serve with you as your director and commander,” said Allen. “The past two years have been an incredible journey and the highlight of my Naval career thus far. Thank you to all of the staff – military, civilian, contract, and volunteer – at our hospital and five branch health clinics. I’m so proud of all you’ve done to provide safe, high quality care to our patients. I am privileged to have served with you. Capt. House, you take command of a high-performing team that is committed to healing our nation’s heroes.”
NH Jacksonville, the Jacksonville Market, and NMRTC Jacksonville support 5 installations, 68 operational units, 119 enrolled commands, and 257 non-enrolled commands each year, along with 175,000 beneficiaries (including about 57,000 enrollees).
During Allen’s tenure, NH Jacksonville, the Jacksonville market, and NMRTC Jacksonville have become the premier care centers within the Defense Health Agency (DHA).
Over the past two years, NH Jacksonville and the Jacksonville market contributed to the safe delivery of 1.5 million outpatient visits, 175,000 dental visits, 7,300 admissions, 13,000 surgeries, 4 million prescriptions, 3.8 million laboratory tests, 2,500 baby deliveries, and led the successful transition and certification of NH Jacksonville as well as its 5 branch clinics for the DHA.
Allen successfully executed $339 million with a 99.85 percent execution rate while being a pilot Military Treatment Facility (MTF) in the implementation of new financial systems, in support of the DHA transition of administration and control of the MTFs in accordance with the National Defense Authorization Act.
The command led the way in joint partnerships with the Veteran's Affairs (VA), Health Affairs leading to a Department of Defense and VA partnership that bridged the gap for VA patients to receive care at the MTF, and enhance clinical skills for the General Medical Education (GME) program.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, NH Jacksonville was instrumental in informing senior line leaders on COVID-19, improving the line leadership understanding of current threats, mitigations strategies, and ensuring readiness and lethality of forces were maintained. NH Jacksonville increased inpatient capacity by 200 percent by training 62 nurses and 116 corpsmen from outpatient areas. The command leveraged community partnerships for COVID-19 testing by providing support with a less than 24-hour results turnaround for both symptomatic patients and active duty personnel pending deployments and accession pipeline training across the southeast region to include the United States Marine Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina.
The command oversaw the establishment of the COVID-19 "screen and swab" clinics at all six facilities, collecting 1,800 COVID-19 test samples in less than 2 months. NH Jacksonville and its BHCs (Jacksonville, Key West, Mayport, Albany, and Kings Bay) orchestrated the delivery of 82,041 COVID-19 vaccines to operational forces and beneficiaries by designing and implementing the first COVID-19 vaccine mass vaccination off-site location across the Department of Defense at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. This produced a network cost avoidance of 2.7 million dollars enterprise-wide to operational forces, garrison personnel, and beneficiaries with the throughput capacity vastly greater then could be achieved in the hospital setting.
The command’s Expeditionary Medical Facility (EMF)-Mike deployed 139 personnel to Vaccination Site Team-3 of Task Force Southeast, delivering 85,429 COVID-19 vaccinations over 85 days to the residents of Jacksonville, Florida as a Defense Support of Civil Authorities mission in concert with Federal Emergency Management Agency and the State of Florida. EMF-Mike also deployed two 35-member Expeditionary Medical Unit (EMU) rotations, 9 and 12, deployed to Erbil, Iraq. Deployed 72 providers and technicians for eight campaigns covering six area of responsibilities, 18 thousand deployment hours, supporting COVID-19 pandemic response, 4,312 refugee care and relocations, and health care to 1,100 Department of Defense personnel supporting Operation Allies Welcome.
Allen, a native of Eighty Four, Pennsylvania, is a Medical Corps officer. On July 10, 2020, she assumed leadership of NH Jacksonville, where she was awarded the Legion of Merit Award for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service. Allen now embarks on a new assignment as assistant deputy chief of operations, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.
House, the newest leader of the three commands, previously served as executive officer of Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton. A native of Gardiner, Maine, she was commissioned as a Nurse Corps officer in 1997.
House acknowledged the exceptionally high standard set by Allen. “I’m honored to take command of Naval Hospital Jacksonville. I look forward to maintaining the momentum created by Capt. Allen and continuing to move us forward,” said House.
Naval Hospital Jacksonville and Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command Jacksonville deliver health care and readiness. NH Jacksonville and its five branch health clinics serve 175,000 active duty, active duty family members, and retired service members, including 57,000 patients enrolled with a primary care manager. NMRTC Jacksonville and its five units support warfighters' medical readiness to deploy and clinicians' readiness to save lives. To learn more, visit: https://jacksonville.tricare.mil.