IRT at South Middle School ends Tuesday at noon
Hendersonian Charlotte Smoot, a retiree, said the benefits she receives doesn’t pay for glasses, so she was excited to walk away from the Innovative Readiness Training mission currently taking place at South Middle School Thursday with a new pair—free of charge.
She recommends anyone else wanting medical, dental or vision care to come to the mission before it ends on Tuesday.
“I mean, how can you not?” Smoot said. “Everybody was very nice, very professional.”
A bonus for Smoot was to meet and snap a photo with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who was touring the mission Thursday.
Smoot is one of a projected 2,350 patients from Henderson and surrounding counties who will have taken advantage of the mission’s services by the time is closes at noon on Tuesday. Those patients, according to IRT staff, will save themselves some $675,000.
Some of those patients’ reactions are similar to Smoot’s. According to Lt. Col Stacy Brown, the mission officer in charge, one mother of five children had dental problems so that she didn’t want to smile. After IRT dentists fixed her six front teeth, she smiled widely for all to see and asked that her story be shared, Brown said.
She said another patient, after receiving dental work, said, “Now I don’t have to pull my teeth with a pair of pliers.”
“This is the reason (we do this),” Brown said. “This makes it worth it.”
The IRT is a nationwide program in which military professionals can obtain training in their specific medical fields while residents of a community receive free healthcare.
Bringing the program to Henderson was a collaboration between the city and the Green River Area Development District, said Henderson City Manager Buzzy Newman in a previous interview. Both worked to write the grant application, which was then submitted to the Delta Regional Authority, he said.
Representatives from all those organizations, the governor and Dr. Corey Wiggins, the federal co-chair of the Delta Regional Authority, were on hand Thursday for the IRT Distinguished Visitors Day. They toured the mission in which more than 160 military personnel have come to provide free medical, health and vision care. IRT staff estimated Thursday that by mission’s end military personnel will have accumulated 21,710 total training hours.
Patients begin the process in the front lobby where initial paperwork is completed, and after a wait there, they are taken to the gym where their vitals are taken.
Depending on the patient’s needs, he or she may stay in the gym for a medical check, occurring within temporary examining rooms.
From the gym, those needing their teeth looked at are taken to the dental area where fourteen dentist chairs are spread among several classrooms. There, dentists have been doing extractions and fillings, as well as routine cleanings, said First Sgt. William Bisson, who oversees the dental services. Bisson said they’ve been averaging about 85 patients per day.
Or, for an eye exam, patients go to the optometry clinic, which includes four phoropters and hundreds of frames to choose from, located in the school’s media center.
According to Smoot, it’s an efficient process.
“They have it set up very professional,” she said.
The mission appears to be a hit with both the military personnel, local officials and residents who are taking part. Several times overheard on the tour were IRT personnel who said this has been one of the best missions they’ve ever taken part in.
Additionally, Col Jaclyn Chatwick, the Innovative Training Readiness director at the Pentagon, said in her opening remarks Thursday that “this is one of the best innovative readiness trainings we’ve been on,” adding with a laugh that local partners provided cake—her first ever cake on a mission.
Chatwick said that the military side has made amazing partners with local city staff and others who helped facilitate the mission.
That was echoed by Capt. Chris Park, the deputy program manager for Air National Guard IRT. Park has worked closely with Newman and other city staffers in the months leading up to the mission.
Park said there’s a chance that IRT could return to Henderson next year—though nothing is planned yet.
“We would love to come back,” Park told the Hendersonian. “We were amazed by the welcoming of the community here.”
Newman said talks have already begun with nearby county judges about the possibility of locating another mission within the GRADD area next year. He called it a regional effort that would require a joint application filed by the partnered municipalities. But that is just in the infancy stages.
To wrap up the morning’s tour, Park presented community recognition awards to GRADD, Henderson County Fiscal Court, the city of Henderson, South Middle School and Deaconess Health System.
In closing remarks, Beshear thanked the IRT staff and medical professionals.
“You are impacting each and everyone of their (patients’) lives,” he said, adding the care they receive at the mission may just be the help needed to get someone over the hump to achieve dreams.
