Sarah Carnes
Pandemic: On the Front Lines of the Life-or Death Battle with COVID-19
Monday, February 8, 2021
1:15 pm
Presented by Sarah Carnes via Zoom Webinar
When COVID-19 struck the Bedford VAMC in February 2020, Sarah Carnes was detailed as the Acting Emergency Manager, coordinating the emergency planning and management of the VA Bedford Healthcare System’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which included infection control, testing, and outbreak management. She never hesitated to take on this daunting task. “If you’ve been trained and someone needs those skills, that’s a call to duty”, she sums up. And she was the perfect choice for this new position.
Sarah is a former US Army Medical Service Corps Officer who coordinated medical services and evacuation for soldiers in the United States and Europe, including Bosnia and Albania. While she was the Chief of Security, Plans, and Operations at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, she managed the command center in response to Al Qaeda’s bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2020.
Her military experience taught her two important lessons: always be prepared; and rely on your team. She’s made a career in health care operations, managing emergency operations for four hospitals in the wake of 9/11. She provided emergency management training for first responders. She’s been involved in planning for public health disasters like smallpox, SARS, and Anthrax.
In her talk, Sarah will give an inside look at her duties as Interim Emergency Manager from February to July 2020, sharing stories of the round-the-clock team effort to care for the veterans and keep them safe. Volunteers are an important part of her team, bringing brief moments of companionship and comfort to veterans who are lonely and isolated. “Our volunteers, most of whom are veterans themselves, are a lifeline for our residents,” Sarah declares.
Sarah is a graduate of the University of Virginia. She was commissioned in the US Army Medical Corps through ROTC in 1993 and served 8 years, mostly in field units providing medical support in Europe and stateside. She later earned a master’s in Library and Information Science with a focus on disaster information and health care. She joined the VA Bedford Healthcare System in 2017 as Clinical Librarian, where “I can save the providers time by finding the information they need so they can focus on patient care.” In December 2020, Sarah was appointed Acting Supervisory Health System Specialist for the Chief of Staff.
Monday, February 8, 2021
1:15 pm
Presented by Sarah Carnes via Zoom Webinar
When COVID-19 struck the Bedford VAMC in February 2020, Sarah Carnes was detailed as the Acting Emergency Manager, coordinating the emergency planning and management of the VA Bedford Healthcare System’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which included infection control, testing, and outbreak management. She never hesitated to take on this daunting task. “If you’ve been trained and someone needs those skills, that’s a call to duty”, she sums up. And she was the perfect choice for this new position.
Sarah is a former US Army Medical Service Corps Officer who coordinated medical services and evacuation for soldiers in the United States and Europe, including Bosnia and Albania. While she was the Chief of Security, Plans, and Operations at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, she managed the command center in response to Al Qaeda’s bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2020.
Her military experience taught her two important lessons: always be prepared; and rely on your team. She’s made a career in health care operations, managing emergency operations for four hospitals in the wake of 9/11. She provided emergency management training for first responders. She’s been involved in planning for public health disasters like smallpox, SARS, and Anthrax.
In her talk, Sarah will give an inside look at her duties as Interim Emergency Manager from February to July 2020, sharing stories of the round-the-clock team effort to care for the veterans and keep them safe. Volunteers are an important part of her team, bringing brief moments of companionship and comfort to veterans who are lonely and isolated. “Our volunteers, most of whom are veterans themselves, are a lifeline for our residents,” Sarah declares.
Sarah is a graduate of the University of Virginia. She was commissioned in the US Army Medical Corps through ROTC in 1993 and served 8 years, mostly in field units providing medical support in Europe and stateside. She later earned a master’s in Library and Information Science with a focus on disaster information and health care. She joined the VA Bedford Healthcare System in 2017 as Clinical Librarian, where “I can save the providers time by finding the information they need so they can focus on patient care.” In December 2020, Sarah was appointed Acting Supervisory Health System Specialist for the Chief of Staff.