Defense Health Agency Director visits Tyndall AFB

BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - Defense Health Agency Director Ronald Place visited Tyndall Air Force Base to find and establish plans to improve healthcare for service members, to provide a way the department of defense is calling a medically-ready-force.

“For every uniform person, have we done everything we can to keep them healthy? If we haven’t done that, can we rapidly return them to optimal health,” U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Ronald Place, with the Defense Health Agency, said.

Place said they also want to establish a standardized system of medical services including finding specialists in the community who are available to provide dental, vision, and other health services to airmen and women at every base in the military.

“We have to look at the whole environment, to be able people in the right locations and partner with the right people and communities. Trauma centers, infectious disease centers, and get everybody on the same page,” Place said.

Place said the Department Of Defense has collected convalescent plasma and are trying to find other ways to treat COVID-19. He said even though they do not have a vaccine, they’re working to create a registrar to use the data to help find a solution to the virus.

“It takes anybody that has been infected and we get information about them,” Place said. “Their demographics, their other medical problems, whether they were admitted to the hospital or not. If they were what therapies they had while they were in the hospital.”

Place also said retirees interested in TRICARE-select must pay their enrollment fees for the first time ever. He said according to the new law the fees are due by January 1st.

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