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Science & Technology
Army, Navy want unified medical command
2006-05-25
The Defense Department is shaping a final decision document to reorganize the military health-care system around a new unified medical command, say senior officials.

The command would be led by a four-star medical officer given unprecedented authority. He would take charge of what now are service-unique responsibilities for medical staffing, training, purchasing, operations and medical readiness across the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

Service and Defense leaders in early May received, for review and comment within 30 days, three options for a new command structure.

Under the first, which enjoys strong support from the Army and Navy surgeons general, the new medical command would be a major combatant command similar to the U.S. Special Operations Forces Command, and reporting directly to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Posted by:Anonymoose

#10  I think the reasoning behind this is that such operations would significantly cut costs, and relieve manpower shortages. We have three major bases here in Colorado Springs, with another three minor ones. Ft. Carson has a huge hospital, the Air Force Academy has a moderate-sized hospital, Peterson AFB has a clinic and runs a satellite clinic at Schriver AFB. No matter what they do, however, it's still a pain in the neck to get an appointment!
Posted by: Old Patriot   2006-05-25 23:46  

#9  Money will actually be saved???? How'd that happen?
Posted by: anonymous2u   2006-05-25 20:45  

#8  Hurrah for the lovely Mrs. USN, ret! ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-05-25 20:20  

#7  In San Antonio, they are going to close the big AF hospital, Wilford Hall and combine operations including teaching medical personnel and the Trama Center over at Brook Army Medical Center. BAMC is only a few years old and "Big Willy" is aging.

Lackland AFB will be getting a large clinic to replace WH. Sad for those of us who were treated there, but it makes too much sense.
Posted by: Steve   2006-05-25 15:43  

#6  This is already going on, the lovely Mrs. USN, ret is a civil servant at NHOH here at beautiful NAS Whidbey and they are operating under a joint command arrangement that involves all the Northwest Military facilities. The Commanding Officer of this rotates among the various armed forces. It has brought a lot of unity to the various forces, especially in the admin world. Reduces a lot of overhead and other burdens that impdes fixing people up.
Posted by: USN, ret.   2006-05-25 15:36  

#5  Aside from Navy corpsmen who support Marine units, most of the military medical personnel are relatively interchangeable with their civilian counterparts and think of themselves as civilians who happen to wear a uniform (occasionally).
Posted by: RWV   2006-05-25 14:42  

#4  Makes perfectly good sense, so whom OUTSIDE the government came up with this?
Posted by: Cyber Sarge   2006-05-25 10:03  

#3  Not sure about that, NS. More like integrating a key functional area. Joint ops are real, so med support is an issue. Also real is the potential need for a coordinated response in the (I hope unlikely, but possible) event of a WMD attack, natural disaster, bird flu etc. problem homeside.
Posted by: lotp   2006-05-25 08:37  

#2  Back door service integration?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2006-05-25 08:21  

#1  Supports joint ops.

Might be needed to support reponse to WMD etc. as well. ??
Posted by: lotp   2006-05-25 05:46  

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