Military, civilian medics join forces
by Army Master Sgt. Bob Haskell
National Guard Bureau
5/26/2004 - KEYSTONE, Colo. (AFPN) -- About 400 civilian and military medics joined together here recently for a high-level medical conference held by the Air National Guard’s medical service.
The Readiness Frontiers Medical Conference explored, among other matters, the relationship between the civilian and military medical communities.
The medics, including an 11-person team from Harvard University, searched for ways military and civilian health professionals could join forces to help Americans deal with catastrophic disasters and attacks by terrorists.
The civilian team, led by Dr. Susan Briggs of Harvard Medical International and Massachusetts General Hospital, introduced the new Harvard Advanced Disaster Medical Response course to the military physicians, nurses and emergency medics.
“This is an unprecedented opportunity for us, as citizen Soldiers, to strengthen a partnership with our civilian medical (leaders),” said Col. Randy Falk, director of medical services. Training together and planning responses for national or international disasters are “our targets,” he said.
Two themes underscored the conference that featured current challenges in bioterrorism, dealing with biological, chemical and nuclear agents in weapons of mass destruction, and caring for the dead and their families:
-- The military and civilian medical communities must work together, because neither has the critical-care resources to handle a major disaster or terrorist attack on its own.
-- The Air National Guard can respond to those situations better than ever because it has expeditionary medical support systems situated throughout the country. The systems are modern mobile emergency medical facilities.
Conference goers learned of a new civilian-military medical program in Arizona. The program provides training for guardsmen during their weekend drills with civilians who care for trauma patients in Scottsdale.
“Nine-eleven proved to us that we are a nation that comes together,” said retired Maj. Gen. Paul Weaver Jr., former director of the Air National Guard and now a private consultant who helped arrange the Scottsdale alliance. “It is not if we are going to have another attack. It is when.”
Neither the nation’s military nor civilian medical communities have the people and resources to cope with a major crisis alone, “but together we can,” he said.
“The medical assets are fairly limited in this country,” Dr. Briggs said. “The military and civilian sectors need to work together in any kind of mass-casualty event, particularly a terrorist attack. We need our disaster response to be integrated. We need to know each other’s strengths.”
Civilians know how to staff medical centers, for example, and the military knows how to decontaminate victims of a biological, chemical or nuclear attack before they enter a medical facility, she said.
Critical-care specialists -- emergency-room doctors, anesthesiologists, orthopedic surgeons and critical-care nurses -- are in greatest demand throughout the military’s reserve components. They are already working long hours and earning good livings in civilian facilities, Colonel Falk said.
Nationwide, the ANG is short about 50 physicians and about 75 nurses.
“We have enough slots, but we don’t have enough critical-care people, so we’re working to train the people we do have,” Colonel Falk said.
The ANG has trained about 3,000 of 6,500 medics in critical-care procedures, and the rest will be trained soon, Colonel Falk said.
Many of those would staff the 25-bed expeditionary medical support system the ANG established in 10 Federal Emergency Management Agency regions in the country and in other high-threat areas during the past 16 months.
Scottsdale officials are pioneering the push for greater civilian-military cooperation. Arizona ANG medics began training there in April and will be there monthly beginning in September, said Dr. Thomas Wachtel.
The first group is coming from the 161st Air Refueling Wing in Phoenix, and F-16 Fighting Falcon training wing Airmen in Tucson will come on board later this year, Dr. Wachtel said.
The plan is for guardsmen to work in the emergency room and trauma center at first and then move into the intensive care center.
There will be plenty of room and plenty of work, because the Scottsdale trauma center will expand from 12,000 to 55,000 square feet, in September, Dr. Wachtel said. He said he also believes other medics from the Army National Guard and active-duty Air Force will join this effort.
Guardsmen will be able to serve when they can during the month and when the hospital needs them -- not just during their drill weekends. It also makes sense for the civilian and military people to get acquainted, Dr. Wachtel said.
“Who are you going to war with? That’s the real issue here,” Dr. Wachtel said. “If you work together now, you’ll know who you’re dealing with during an emergency.” |
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