International Medical Corps' CEO Nancy Aossey on COVID-19

International Medical Corps' President & CEO Nancy Aossey talks with Giselle Fernandez of Spectrum News about International Medical Corps' COVID-19 response in the United States, its work around the world and the history of the organization that has prepared International Medical Corps to respond to this global coronavirus pandemic.

For more information on our COVID-19 response in the United States and around the world, visit http://www.InternationalMedicalCorps.....

Transcript:
This is a spectrum news one special COVID-19 just the facts today we focus on the International Medical Corps based here in Los Angeles, taking on South LA and the pandemic when disaster strikes anywhere in the world. It's the International Medical Corps that acts as the first response to every major disaster of the last 30 years. Afghanistan, Rwanda, Darfur, the Indian Ocean tsunami, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Syria. It's International Medical Corps that's led the way with medical crisis response and recovery. Now they turn their attention here at home, taking on COVID-19.

For more than three decades, International Medical Corps operates in war zones, countries facing famine and disease in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. Their mission: to improve the quality of life through health interventions and related activities that strengthen underserved communities worldwide. Their focus now: the United States where they intend to set up 20 field hospitals across the nation. Already, they've deployed medical shelters and equipment to Martin Luther King Jr Community Hospital, serving an area of high medical need in South LA, adding 16 total beds outside the hospital and giving jobs to local day laborers and other workers that help make a difference.

Giselle Fernandez: Hello everyone and welcome. I'm Giselle Fernandez and I'm coming to you from my home, the new normal during this pandemic in an effort to keep my crew and all of us safe from this virus and today we are joined by the President and Chief Executive Officer of the International Medical Corps, Nancy Aossey to share with us her efforts here in Los Angeles and across the world. Nancy, it's great to see you. Thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today.

Nancy Aossey: Oh, it's great to see you, Giselle. Thank you.

Giselle Fernandez: Congratulations on your immense work. I mean 80 countries deploying $3 billion in humanitarian aid and training to tens of millions of people. Really impressive. I've always admired the work you've done across the globe when disaster strikes. Can you tell me about your efforts here to combat COVID-19 specifically in South LA?

Nancy Aossey: Sure, of course. With what's happening with COVID-19 we immediately started focusing right here in our own hometown, Los Angeles, and our home state of California. So we started working with Martin Luther King Hospital, as well as two County hospitals, Olive View UCLA and County USC, to provide search capacity to their hospitals so that they can continue to better manage the overflow of patients that they're getting as a result of COVID-19.

Giselle Fernandez: And Nancy, how did you come to choose South LA and these specific hospitals?

Nancy Aossey: International Medical Corps is always focused on what are the needs, the greatest needs, and what are the gaps. And so as a result, because we're focused on the gaps, we tend to look at those hospitals that are under-resourced and those hospitals that see lots of people but don't always have all the support that they need. And so we talk very closely with local hospitals, county hospitals, nonprofit hospitals. We talked to them about what are they seeing, what are their needs, how can we provide support so that they can better see the tremendous increase of patients that they're getting.

Giselle Fernandez: Tell me who you're working with and collaborating with to make this happen.

Nancy Aossey: Here in our team, we have 7,000 people around the world, most of them health workers, but our procurement logistics team, they're spread among multiple time zones and as a result they work different shifts and collectively we're looking at 24 hours of sourcing the supplies that are needed based on what we're hearing from the hospitals that we support. And then partnering with people, local philanthropists, corporations, foundations, and those hospitals and clinics that need our help. That's the only reason why we're able to leverage and scale up our efforts here in Southern California, here in Los Angeles.