Military medicine struggles to fulfill all of the missions it has set out for itself and risks being successful in none of them. Army Medicine is at a critical decision point, the results of which will have a lasting impact on the military and military medicine. This essay will argue a position to create a more efficient military medical system while developing a medical force that is ready to adequately care for ill and injured service members in deployed settings. In short, it involves drastically cutting the active duty medical force and eliminating most military treatment facilities (MTFs). Army Medicine has two primary goals to fulfill in order to support the Army’s mission to “fight and win our Nation’s wars…” 1) Maintain medical …show more content…
Military medical leaders view the MTF as the training grounds for its providers, nurses and medics, which is not inaccurate. However, none of the top 10 diagnoses seen at MTFs are related to caring for combat casualties. Furthermore, MTFs often have low percentage of their inpatient beds occupied because they are kept open in case they are needed for war-time casualties. This is simply inefficient, incurs unacceptable costs, and does not contribute to the training of any military medical staff. Another negative side effect of the MTF is the large force of medical professionals on active duty with a specialty that has absolutely no role on a deployment. All these positions should be given to civilians. These include but are not limited to, any pediatric-related medical profession, dieticians, occupational therapists, pharmacists, audiologists, most eye care professionals, many but not all behavioral health professions, most obstetric and mother baby care, cardiologists and …show more content…
So where are military medical professionals to train and work, if not at the MTF? The Air Force has an established program in which their surgeons work at the nearest Level 1 trauma center to where they are stationed. This is a system that should be built upon. Military medical professionals need to be seeing a high volume of patients and doing a high number of procedures, practicing their craft, to be best prepared to care for injured soldiers on deployment. This high-volume has been shown to have a benefit on mortality and is something not being achieved at the great majority of MTFs. Money saved by closing the MTFs should be put to use developing training and continuing to put our medical providers through deployment specific medical training such as simulation labs and courses like the Army’s Tactical Combat Medical Care (TCMC)
Tien, Homer. “The Canadian Forces trauma care system.” Canadian Journal of Surgery 54 (2011): 112-117.
In the early 1900’s the United States’ medical field was stagnant causing many deaths in wartime. The majority of deaths in war times were often caused by diseases that were incurable. The United States medical field had to grow to current needs in war but it grew very slowly. The United States Army Ambulance Service was established on June 23, 1917 and the Sanitary Corps established one week later on the 30th. (David Steinert). The Sanitary Corps quickly expanded to nearly 3,000 officers during World War I but, this field was still much smaller than any other
Veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder need to receive better care, because post traumatic stress disorder is curable, damages relationships, and veterans made many dramatic sacrifices. The health care for veterans needs to be more easily accessible.
Limbs were being shattered and wounds were becoming infected and spreading throughout the body. Even though the Civil War was a gruesome time, many lifesaving procedures were born through it. Because of the high medical need during the American Civil War, necessary advances such as medical inventions, lifesaving procedures, and reconstructive surgery established the foundation for our current medical methods. Ambulances were further developed from the base model which already existed during the war. The ambulance’s main purpose was to speedily take injured soldiers from the battlefield to the medical and doctors in order to receive appropriate care.
When a soldier enlists in the United States military they make a promise to serve and protect our nation, putting their lives at risk to help keep America safe. Sadly when they finish their service they unknowingly enlist themselves in another war: to receive proper health care from VA. Things like long waiting times, understaffed facilities, and few care options for veterans in rural areas are just the beginning of the problems plaguing VA health care. Horrifying issues that are killing our veteran are beginning to surface such as employees falsifying records, outdated facilities spreading diseases, and patient neglect; all while key VA officials continue to scramble to cover things up. Our government must intervene quickly to fix the growing problems with VA health care so our veterans receive the care they were promised and should be receiving.
In 2007 two Washington Post reporters spent four months visiting Walter Reed hospital’s outpatient world known as building 18. The conditions were bad, floors rotted through, stained carpet, mouse droppings, cheap mattresses and the smell of cheap takeout in the air. This is how our veterans lived. They received premier medical treatment, saving their lives. So they could get lost in the paperwork. The outpatient process was lacking to say the least. These soldiers came from a war zone to a chaotic scene where soldiers with traumatic brain injuries and PTSD were supposed to be in charge of soldiers at risk of suicide. The staff was unqualified or disconnected. They had to fill out paperwork for multiple commands and keep up with appointments, while they couldn’t even remember their way around the hospital. They had pay issues and trouble feeding their families. Vera Heron spent 15 frustrating months living on post to help care for her son. "It just absolutely took forever to get anything done," Heron said. "They do the paperwork, they lose the paperwork. Then they have to redo the paperwork. You are talking about guys and girls whose lives are disrupted for the rest of their lives, and they don't put any priority on it (Priest & Hull, 2007)."
First off, our current soldiers will have increased health issues. Already, three in eight soldiers suffer from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, commonly known as PTSD. PTSD’s are caused by exposition to traumatic events, such as warfare. The symptoms include: disturbing thought, feelings, or dreams related
Military Sexual Trauma, also known as MST. What is it and why is it important? MST refers to psychological trauma resulting from a sexual assault or repeated, threatening harassment experienced during military service (pg. 3). Now, let us take a moment and think about the relevance of this subject? When we think of our women in combat, what do we see? We see strong and courteous females. But have we ever thought about what could be lurking underneath all that armor?
Here at the Chelsea Naval Hospital, the influx of patients arriving home from the war inflicted with "battle wounds and mustard gas burns," has created a shortage of physicians and it is becoming increasingly difficult to fight this influenza. Even our own physicians are falling ill from the disease and dying within hours of its onset. Today I received a letter from Dr. Roy, a friend and fellow physician at Camp Devens, who describes a similar situation:
I medicine had received a massive rebirth with creation of advanced diagnostic equipment, Lister’s Germ Theory, the typhoid vaccine, major advances in anesthesia, management of fluid balances, and aseptic surgical techniques. These techniques and advancements were unavailable to Civil War doctors. Another prominent medical historian, James McPherson, argues that Civil War doctors “knew of few ways except amputation to stop gangrene” in his book Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. McPherson continues to derail Civil War doctors by dividing them into two separate groups: the radicals, who believed that amputation saved more lives than threatened them, and the conservatives, who tried to save the limb no matter the degree of the wound
It was during this time that doctors and nurses, through experience also demonstrated that blood could be stored and then safely transferred from patient to patient saving countless soldiers’ lives.
During the civil war, medicine was not nearly as advanced as it is today. Medical terms were different and quite frankly, people didn’t know the significance of cleanliness and hygiene. We’ve learned from thein and have further evolved the art of medicine, but without the knowledge of their past mistakes and misfortunes, we would never have been able to come as far as we have. The traditional way civil war doctors performed the medicine, has given us the wisdom of an organized military hospital, the importance of sanitation, and the proper way to do amputations.
...th during deployment as well as in the United States Army hospitals. The deployment setting can test military nursing workers in ways that are not the same as what is typical for private citizen nursing employees who practice in traditional civilian hospitals. Providing nursing care to traumatically wounded American military personnel and enemy combatants and living in rigid circumstances are cases of some of the stresses deployed nurses suffer. Depersonalization is also a huge risk factor of burnout in military nurses. One factor that is helpful in avoiding burnout in the Army setting is that physicians, RNs, LPNs and medics all cooperate in ways that may be unusual in a private citizen hospital. In the military setting, the scope of practice increases and nurses are most often times reinforced entirely by their colleagues (Lang, Patrician and Steele, 2012).
The 1976 Swine Flu outbreak caused widespread panic and many casualties in its wake. Permanent disability was the major result of what was thought to be to solution to the pandemic, vaccines. In early 1976, the swine flu or H1N1 caused severe respiratory illness in 13 soldiers and 1 death on the military base in Fort Dix, New Jersey (Gaydos, Top, Hodder, & Russell, 2006). This influenza outbreak resembled the fright and virulence of the 1918 Spanish Flu, which cause epidemiologist great concern. By month’s end the virus infected over 230 soldiers fueling the hysteria. At that time, it was assumed that new recruits were the source of the infection and all entering the Fort Dix based were placed on isolation for a total of six weeks (Gaydos, Top, Hodder, & Russell, 2006).
Smith, S. E., 2003. What is a Military Pharmacy? . Available at: [Accessed on 8 November 2011]