TRICARE Annual Conference Takes Place in Washington DC

Military Medicine, Spring 2006

The State of the Military Health System 2006 Annual Conference (formerly the TRICARE Annual Conference), was held in Washington DC in early February. Reports on BRAC results and troop confidence in military healthcare were part of the program.

The BRAC Commission Chairman, Anthony J. Principi, reported that opportunities and challenges exist for both the military community and more specifically, the military medical community as a result of the changes brought about by BRAC.

The list of actions spurred by the BRAC program influencing military medical establishments is long: Four affect large medical facilities, at least four more affect medical research and management activities, and seven outpatient hospitals will convert to clinics with ambulatory surgery capacity.

One specific example of BRACs changes include Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Formerly an Army medical institution with a world class reputation, it will now become a "...premier, modernized joint operational medicine platform," according to Principi. Another example of the new interoperable intention of DoD can be seen in BRACs establishment of a joint medical facility at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

It will be important for military health care leadership not to loose focus on the top priority of providing world class healthcare to service members and their families, Principi said. "Those men and women look to you-the health care professionals in this room-to provide them and their families with medical care they need-care our nation provides to them in satisfaction of an obligation reciprocal to the one they assumed to us when they took their oaths of office."

And according to a report delivered at the conference the day before, they're doing a stellar job. Marine Gen Robert Magnus, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, commented on the tremendous respect every troop member who goes into combat has for the medical service members who serve right by their side. "I'm talking about people who, hour after hour, in the most demanding environmental conditions, under the same combat conditions as the troops that are intentionally going forward in harm's way, they are there. Whenever there is a soldier or Marine storming an enemy position, there is a corpsman or a medic that is right within sight."

According to Magnus, the care provided wounded troops at the front lines is exceptional, as is care delivered at every military medical service point along the way from the battle lines to the home front. Tour finest spokesmen are the troops and their families," Magnus reported to the conference of military professionals. "These young men and women leave here in the finest condition of military medicine. You can see it in their faces, as well as in their rehabilitation. You can see it in the confidence and smiles on the faces of their families, however grievous their wounds are."

Reference:

Wood, Sara, "Military Medical Services Give Troops Confidence, General Says," Defense Press Service, January,31 2006