Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) is America’s largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of professional services to partners in government and industry. They’re also the largest employer in the state of Mississippi. For 81 years, the 900-acre shipyard located in Pascagoula, Mississippi, has built Navy and Coast Guard warships, submarines and maritime systems in support of our national defense, but in late April, it was the safety of their own workforce that was their foremost concern.
Community partners since 2012, Work Ready! powered by PT Solutions has served the injured workers at HII by performing pre-employment physicals, delivering outpatient physical and occupational therapy, work conditioning, functional testing, and providing on-site job coaching for injured workers who actively return to their jobs. Under the leadership of Senior Clinic Director, Douglas Roll, PT, OCS, FAAOMPT, CIDN and Clinic Director, Aaron Pettis, PT, MS, the staff of Work Ready! along with Team Leaders Robbie Bishop, OT and Rob Delong, ATC work closely with the HII medical staff, local medical community, and HII safety supervisors to ensure all HII employees are fit for duty.
As the COVID-19 crisis began to impact the Gulf Coast, our skilled and dedicated team members were able to provide a very significant service to the HII population. In partnership with the HII Employee Health and Safety Department and Chief Medical Officer, PT Solutions ensured HII was able to continue to deliver the goods and services that are paramount to our national defense by implementing new policies and procedures that allowed them to protect the health of those entrusted to provide those services. In order to minimize risk to the HII workforce, PT Solutions equipped the Work Ready! team with the additional staff and resources needed to provide 24-hour, 7-day a week temperature screenings for the Ingalls workforce of 13,000. Led by Douglas Roll, Gulfport Clinic Director Lauren Mattiace, DPT, OCS, and Physician and Community Liaison, Sheila Farr, a team of more than 40 PT Solutions employees from Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida covered up to 16 points of entry to the shipyard performing daily temperature screenings of almost 13,000 employees every day since April 22nd. The PT Solutions staff followed CDC protocols and worked around the clock to ensure Ingalls’ workers were safe to work amid the COVID-19 crisis.
Working together with the community, our Gulf Coast clinics have shown a commitment that lives up to PT Solutions’ adage of being “Unstoppable” showing once again, that we all truly can go “Farther Together”!
