Health Facility Planning Agency commander commends Center IO&T team for contribution to Army medical mission

Huntsville Center Public Affairs Office
Published May 14, 2014
Col. Mike Brennan (center), U.S. Army Health Facility Planning Agency commander and G9 Facilities at Army Medical Command, speaks with Huntsville Center leadership during his May 13 visit.

Col. Mike Brennan (center), U.S. Army Health Facility Planning Agency commander and G9 Facilities at Army Medical Command, speaks with Huntsville Center leadership during his May 13 visit.

Col. Mike Brennan, U.S. Army Health Facility Planning Agency commander and G9 Facilities at U.S.  Army Medical Command, visited the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville May 13 to meet with Center leadership and discuss the Center’s acquisition support to the Army medical mission.

The Center’s Initial Outfitting and Transition (IO&T) Program supports the HFPA-G9/MEDCOM Medical Military Construction  Program in Korea, Japan and here in the U.S. with new Army hospitals at Fort Irwin, Calif., Fort Benning, Ga.,  Fort Riley, Kan., and Fort Bliss and Fort Hood, Texas.

Accompanying Brennan were Lt. Col. Ross Davidson, HFPA Project Execution Division director and Maj. Lorenza Peterson, HFPA Sustainment/Program Management Division deputy director.

During the visit, Brennan presented a former HFPA employee, Gladston Hall, with the Army Meritorious Civilian Service Award. Hall is now a project manager with the Center’s IO&T program. Brennan also presented awards to some of the Center’s employees who supported actions fiscal 2013.

Addressing more than 40 IO&T team members, Brennan said his visit was a great opportunity to recognize their contributions to the Army medical mission.

“For me, it’s a big deal to come down and recognize the people that do this work,” Brennan said. “You’re kind of the unsung heroes because people just think that it all magically happens—a lot of people think it’s easy and they don’t how much work it takes at this level.” praises

Brennan then briefed the IO&T team about current HFPA and MEDCOM G9 Facility organization and status and what he sees for the programs in the future.

“When I talk about environment of care, it’s not just about building the project capital investment, it’s all the other things we rely on you to help us do, which is the initial outfitting and the transition, the maintenance through the contracts you sustain and maintain,” he said.

 “We couldn’t keep our accreditation in these facilities without these programs and these tools and the help that you all provide.”

Brennan went on to say future business for IO&T Program is encouraging.

 “As long as we have troops we will provide healthcare and maintain these facilities, we’re going to have a requirement to continue this relationship in the future,” Brennan said.

Brennan also touched on the operations of the new Defense Health Agency, which was established in 2013 to make military medicine more efficient, more effective and more affordable, and how the Center and other USACE divisions and districts around the nation will work under DHA.

“In the DHA there are nine shared services—like facilities, logistics, pharmacy, healthcare information technology— things that make sense put under DHA for economies of scale and execution of support for all the services. So when DHA looked at facilities they looked at us (HFPA) because we are already there—I like to think of it as we are a sophisticated customer and we’ve spent years building relationships with all of you here and all the divisions and districts across USACE and that’s what makes the difference. You can’t just stand up an organization and expect them to build that institutional history and knowledge overnight. It’s the relationships we’ve built over time that have allowed us to succeed from every stakeholder’s perspective.

Because of the relationships and understanding HFPA has with USACE, DHA saw sense in allowing HFPA to continue leading the way of medical facilities construction for the future, he said.

“I’m looking forward to the future because we need you, we cannot do it on our own and we need your help. You’ve all done a great job of supporting us and it can’t get much better. Huntsville is our preferred center of expertise for our Initial Outfitting and Transition and I’m committed as a customer,” Brennan said.

Huntsville Center’s IO&T program provides worldwide project management and contracting support to the Army Medical Department Project Execution Division ensuring a wide range of services are available to address the multitude of needs of any project and to ensure the facility can effectively and efficiently execute its mission.

Primary IO&T services include comprehensive project management; comprehensive equipment planning; transition planning and relocation; equipment purchasing furniture; fixtures and equipment interior design services; final turnover and close-out services and installation, testing and training services.