Damage control software to track the spread of the COVID-19 virus is being rolled out to U.S. Navy vessels, the Naval Sea Systems Command said on Friday.

The software will be delivered in laptop computers to171 surface ships, and will be used to repurpose the existing Advanced Damage Control System, officials said.

The system has been used to manage and store data related to incidents from ship collisions and fires to enemy attacks.

With the onset of the pandemic, the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division proposed upgrading the system to help ships manage and mitigate the impact of the virus, officials said.

The software already contains templates for chemical or biological attacks, and can track personnel, plot boundaries around quarantined areas and manage traffic throughout the ship.

"The ability to innovate is a cornerstone of ADCS," John Buckley, branch manager of NSWCPD Machinery Control Systems and the damage control system, said in a statement.

"One of the directives we had when we started designing the system was that it had to be adaptable for purposes we had never even considered," Buckley said. "A global pandemic was not something we had planned on, but keeping sailors safe definitely was."

The ADCS system has been in place aboard ships since 2018. The effort to design appropriate software to track the effects of the virus began after a COVID-19 outbreak among the crew of about 3,000 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in May.

"This effort represents a substantial amount of collaboration and innovation across the Naval Sea Systems Command enterprise," officials said in the statement, citing the work of engineers, software developers, and trainers and the Technical Warrant Holder for Damage Control and Personnel Safety.

The laptop computers are expected to be fully deployed within two to four months.

IG report: Defense Dept. is failing in mental health care of troops, families
Washington DC (UPI) Aug 14, 2020 –

The mental health care of U.S. military troops and their families is not being met by the military health system, a Defense Department Inspector General says.

The 74-page report, released this week, found that "the DoD did not consistently meet outpatient mental health access to care standards for active duty service members and their families, in accordance with law and applicable DoD policies."

It noted that, in the December 2018 to June 2019 time period studied, "seven of 13 MTFs [military treatment facilities] or their supporting TRICARE network [civilian and veteran treatment facilities] did not meet the specialty mental health access to care standard."

Over half of active duty members and their families, in need of mental health care, did not receive it, the report added.

The IG report also cited inconsistency in standards, inadequate staffing of clinics and hospitals, outdated provider information and other deficiencies.

Auditors reported that the Defense Department is not meeting its own legal and policy requirements for outpatient mental health care, which include wait times for urgent care not to exceed 24 hours, waits for routine visits of no more than one week, and specialty care after a referral within one month.

Patients waited an average of 79 days for an off-base psychiatry appointment off-base after receiving a Tricare referral, auditors reported.

An average of 53%, or 4,415 of 8,328 per month, at the 13 MTFs received no care, the report said. The figures reported have no connection to the COVID-19 outbreak of 2020.

Two MTFs, at Fort Bragg, N.C., and Camp Lejuene,N.C., met Defense Department standards in every month under review, auditors said. And two others, the Malcolm Grow Medical Clinic and Surgery Center in Maryland, and the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Va., never met the monthly standards.

The auditors' recommendations included development of a single, system-wide staffing approach for behavioral health care, which estimates the number of appointments and number of personnel needed.