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You’ve read about CCATT here before, and now you can buy some nifty CCATT gear from some folks in Ohio at the CCATT Shop.

Some optical news: a team from Wilford Hall (WHMC), Sheppard AFB, and an Army unit deployed to St Kitts - tough assignment! - and provided optometric care to hundreds of villagers. The good folks at Lions Clubs also helped by providing donated eyewear. And retired Colonel Stephen Waller, the former chief of ophthalmology at WHMC, is still serving in a new capacity; he “deployed” to Iraq with a mobile “crash cart” to provide care to hundreds of Iraqis.

And the long march towards consolidation continues: Wilford Hall Medical Center and Brooke Army Medical Center, the two bastions of military medical care in San Antonio, are moving closer to becoming an integrated “San Antonio Military Medical Center” (aka SAMMC). Of course, if you were in San Antonio in the late 80s/mid 90s, this might sound vaguely familiar: you might recall “JMMC” - the Joint Military Medical Command. This current effort to integration, however, is likely to be permanent, as it has the force of BRAC behind it.

Most of you by now have read or seen the remarkable news about Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynn and AF Chief of Staff Michael Moseley being fired by Defense Secretary Gates. There are plenty of undercurrents to the situation, but the one that the public is primarily focused on - and the one getting the most press - is the two high-visibility incidents involving nuclear weapons and equipment. There is some speculation that the zero-defect standards (and adherence to same) that Strategic Air Command (SAC) was famous for have become somewhat degraded in the years since SACs demise.
One mil-blogger’s analysis of the situation involves the Personnel Reliability Program (aka PRP)…and where there’s PRP, there’s Air Force medics:

3) The Medical Corps Takes a Pass. In many cases where medical conditions should have prevented PRP certification, the Chief tells us, Air Force medical officers refused to take a stand. “They complained a lot because it put the monkey on their backs to do their duty,” he remembers. “I had medical folks tell me: ‘Chief, your standards are too high.’…The mental health folks were the worst. I can count on one finger the number that did their duty. It was both the officers and the NCOs.

Naturally, I’m a bit biased in favor of the AF medics (docs and all). Yes, it’s possible that the AFMS plays a role in this, but if so, it is a VERY small piece of it. I work directly with medical PRP folks, and I am continually impressed with how diligent everyone is when it comes to PRP. Everyone knows the rules and the reasons, and I have never witnessed any AF medic compromise on PRP. Of course, my direct knowledge is limited to my experience at my base; I know that other bases have their own quirks and culture, so of course PRP might be an issue elsewhere, albeit a very small issue as I noted above.

Kudos to some great Air Force medics assigned to the 71st Medical Group at Vance AFB in Oklahoma! Four of them took Wing-level awards during the base’s annual awards ceremony:

- Tech. Sgt. Derek Cox, 71st Medical Group, for NCO of the Year
- Capt. Jamie Kaauamo, 71st Medical Group, for Company Grade Officer of the Year
- Capt. Kris Ostrowski, 71st Medical Operations Squadron, Honor Guard Program Manager of the Year
- Master Sgt. Mitchell Lawrence, 71st Medical Group, Additional Duty First Sergeant of the Year

And the 71 MDG also garnered another award recently: Top Performing Small Clinic in CONUS!

In deployed locations, the role of Air Force nurses can’t be overstated:

Behind every case and helping every patient are the nurses of the 332nd EMDG. From the moment a wounded troop lands at the hospital to the time he or she lands in Germany or is medically evacuated to the U.S., a combat nurse is there to assist physicians, administer medication and care for the wounded. The hospital boasts a 98 percent survivability rate for the wounded who arrive here.

Here is part two in the “combat nurses” series. And speaking of AF nurses, one of them is a hero back in the States: Major Randy McBay jumped into action after a winter storm wreaked havoc in Kansas.
The doctors and nurses in deployed locations can’t perform their life-saving tasks unless they have modern, functional equipment, and that is where AFMS biomedical equipment repair techncians (BMET) play a critical role:

The evolution of technology in contemporary medicine has increased the need for biomedical maintenance flight technicians, Staff Sergeant Brian Cummings said. “Modern patient care revolves around not just the skill of the doctor, but technology as well,” he said. “When the equipment is running correctly, it allows the docs to do their job to the best of their ability. With the most accurate diagnostic equipment at the docs’ disposal, the patients have a better chance at survival and recovery.”

Meanwhile, back in CONUS, the quality of AFMS healthcare has never been better, and surveys demonstrate that the patients and beneficiaries of the AFMS recognize that.

The largest Air Force medical facility, Wilford Hall Medical Center (aka “WHMC”), celebrated 50 years of service recently. The official name is the 59th Medical Wing, but everybody calls it Wilford Hall. And who was Wilford Hall, you might wonder? Most people don’t know that WHMC is actually named after a real person, Major General Wilford Hall, an Army (and then AF) physician from the 1920s through the late 1950s who also served as a MAJCOM surgeon.

I’ve spent lots of time at WHMC - as a visitor, a patient, an expectant father, and a staff member. When my father needed surgery for prostate cancer several years ago, his brother (a wealthy East Coaster) urged him to have the surgery done at a famous New York hospital by a renowned surgeon, and offered to pay all of the expenses; my father flatly refused and put his trust in the staff at WHMC. Of course, everything went smoothly, the cancer was completely removed, and my father has had no recurrence of cancer. It was a lesson for my uncle, who for years had believed that military medicine was somehow inferior to civilian healthcare.

And, like so many young Airmen, I had my wisdom teeth removed at WHMC. And in the early 90s, my daughter was born at WHMC - Dr Stanton Bailey did the delivery - and despite 17 hours of labor and a last-minute emergency C-section, everything turned out great, and we were treated with the utmost kindness and professionalism.

And a few years ago I was assigned to WHMC for one year as part of an educational (AFIT) assignment. I learned alot about the challenges involved in running a huge hospital, and came to appreciate even more the amazing people who serve there. Besides the medical care that happens in the building, it really is like a small town, with a small store, dry cleaners, coffee bar, restaurant (chow hall), post office, newspaper, and other “amenities” that enable the medics to get the job done.

An amazing place. There’s plenty of news about the history of WHMC at the AF News “Heritage To Horizons” page.

Breaking news on Friday: the implementation of the new “AFMS Flight Path” has been put on hold indefinitely. Quite a shock, considering how much effort has been put into the plan to re-design the organizational structure of many Air Force medical facilities. Several medical units were only weeks or months away from making the transition, preparing to eliminate the “Group-Squadron” model and moving to the “Group-Division” model.
Some background: back in 1993 (although largely implemented beginning in 1994), the AFMS began re-organizing medical facilities to look more like regular military units. Prior to 1994, most MTFs had a single commander, and were led by an executive team consisting of a chief of medical staff, chief nurse, administrator, etc - just like most civilian healthcare facilities. With the advent of the “Objective Medical Group” (OMG) concept in 1994, MTFs were organized according to product lines, roughly, to include Medical Operations squadrons, Aerospace Medicine squadrons, Medical Support squadrons, and a few others, all aligned under and reporting to the MTF Commander (Group Commander). Each of those subordinate units had a Squadron Commander, and usually an associated Superintendent. The result: the “executive staff” of AFMS facilities grew exponentially, now including the aforementioned chief physician, chief nurse, administrator, etc, and now also to include all of the squadron commanders. More administrative staff, more overhead.
Fast-forward to 2006: the Air Force Medical Service, after many meetings and planning sessions among senior leaders, unveils a new “Flight Path” that aims to reduce the administrative overhead and streamline operations in many MTFs. To that end, it is decided that Air Force clinics that have fewer than 300 assigned personnel - roughly 30 of the 75 facilities - will become “groups without squadron.” This meant that the facility would still be a Group, with a Colonel commander, but the subordinate squadrons would be eliminated. Instead of squadrons, the unit would be divided into Divisions - Operations, Aeromedical, and Dental - and all administrative functions (business ops, logistics, info systems, etc) would align directly under the Administrator in the “Group Staff” section, rather than a separate squadron. So a small Air Force clinic would now have one Commander (Group level), rather than three Commanders (one Group, two Squadron). Many Air Force clinics were preparing to make the transition in the summer of 2007, with others to follow through the summer of 2008.
But on Friday, that was put on hold. No specific reasons given, yet, but there will no doubt be a flurry of meetings among senior AFMS leaders and their Line counterparts.

In the world of the AFMS, the role of the 4A0X1 is often under-valued. It is purely a support function, and would not exist without the providers, but 4A0s are critical to the success of the AFMS mission. Many of my mentors and role models (and friends!) are 4A0s, so it’s great to be able to pass on the news of the 4A0 award winners for…here’s the list:

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