Military Health Agency Essay

Medical care is provided to individuals that have been injured during war and natural disasters by members of the civilian work force and the military. Trauma medical care has advanced from the experiences that was gained by caring for these casualties. The purpose of this paper is to explain the connection that this author, a member of the Alabama Chemical, Biological, Radiological/Nuclear, and High-yield Explosive (CBRNE) Enhanced Response Force Package (CERFP), has to the Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (MASH).

TRICARE is formerly known as the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS), and is a health care program of the US Department of Defense Military Health System. Following WWII and the Korean War, access to care in military facilities became less available by civilians and active-duty personnel due to a lack of resources, or a constraint of them, and growing demands on the system, and “space-available basis” was first addressed. As a solution, Congress passed the Dependents Medical Care Act in 1956 and the Military Medical Benefits Amendments in 1966. Such acts allowed the Secretary of Defense to work with civilian health care providers and contract their services. This health civilian health care program became known as the CHAMPUS in 1966. The responsibility of maintaining the health care initiative within the Military lies upon the U.S. Department of Defense Military Health System, which organized the Tricare Management Activity (TMA). The TMA consists of a contract-structure between several large health insurance corporations to provide claims processing, customer service and other administrative functions to the TRICARE

A soldier is covered under HIPAA DoD Health Information Privacy Regulation DoD 6025.18-R. This is a form of HIPPA and is very close to the HIPAA Act of 1996 when it comes to its rules and regulations. When it comes to disclosure for law enforcement purposes, the military could disclose the soldier’s medical information for lawful purposes. It If a soldier is going to a specialized government function (specialize school, promotion schools ). The military needs to look at a soldiers medical records to make a PHA (physical and or mental health assessment) to see if they are mission ready or mission capable.

On 27 July 1775 Congress authorized the establishment of the United States Army Medical Department. The purpose behind this decision was to enhance the effectiveness in combat. The importance of this move was not only to improve the effectiveness but to create cohesion because a lot of the sectors that make up the department existed already but separately. Creating such togetherness allowed for the comprehensive understanding that their mission was the same and fills in gaps of service.

From September 2006 to August 2011, he served as the Senior Preventive Medicine NCO and Headquarters and Headquarters Company First Sergeant for the 62nd Medical Brigade at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. During deployments to Operation Iraqi Freedom 07-09 and Operation Enduring Freedom 09-10, he managed the Disease and Non-Battle Injury (DNBI) surveillance program which tracked and analyzed disease trends across the theater of operations. He analyzed over 60 comprehensive reports, and oversaw the completion of over 34,000 inspections for food, water, sanitation, environmental surveillance, and CBRNE operations at over 127 locations. He identified 15 serious disease outbreaks, implemented corrective actions, and rapidly deployed PM

In 1986, the US Army created a data center to support HIV-related screening, clinical care, and research programs (Rubertone & Brundage 2002). In 1993, this data center converted to the Army Medical Surveillance System (AMSS) to include all diseases and injuries of military importance. In 1997, the AMSS transitioned to the Defense Medical Surveillance System (DMSS) converting in the central medical surveillance data for the US Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force). The DMSS tracks service members from the day they enter service until the day they leave. This longitudinal, relational database contains data on service personnel demographics, immunization records, deployment histories, and inpatient and outpatient medical

True the United States health care system is unnecessarily fragmented because the health care system embodies both private and government insurance. The fragmented health care system in the United states as has been noted by many healthcare experts comes with various issues such health care disparities and high per capita health spending compared to other nations in the world. Nonetheless, the U.S. healthcare system is a system that is constantly evolving as patients are demanding for better care; and health care payers across the United States are demanding for enhanced cost containment initiatives from the healthcare organizations. To this end, in 1965, two notable governmental healthcare programs were launched, the aim was to make

U.S and Canada Health care delivery system is the components and processes that allows people to receive health care. The United States and Canadian health care delivery system has come a long way since their start up. The US has improved greatly when it comes to the access and quality of their health care delivery system. While the Canadian health care delivery system has gone through changes as well with their public and private health care. The two countries, though different in many ways, have similarities as well in their delivery system approach.

Also, the military differs in the scope of practice of their medics. Scope of practicing being those people they are allowed to treat as well as what interventions they are allowed to perform. For instance, a civilian paramedic would not be allowed to transfer blood straight from one person to another because it is beyond their scope of practice. In the civilian world one’s scope of practice is clearly legally defined based on your job and training, and you cannot extend beyond it. In the military, when treating soldiers, airmen or marines medics are only restricted to what the doctor or physician assistant has trained them to do. All medics receive the same baseline training. They receive training in combat medicine as well as primary care medicine. Procedures they learn include, but are not limited to tourniquets, chest tubes, giving pain medication, and administering intravenous fluids. However, this baseline training is not what military medics are limited to administering. If the primary provider that overseas them trains them on a more advance procedures, and is comfortable with them performing it, that

Military Health Care Systems Overview The Military Health System (MHS) and The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) leads the nation in health information technology and developed a system that summarizes patients’ care from several providers (Hosek, et al., 2013). The MHS ensures medical professionals from the Army, Navy, and the Air Force are medically ready to deploy around the world at any given time (“About the Military Health System”, n.d.). The MHS is led by the “Assistance Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs under the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness” (“About the Military Health System”, n.d.). Personal Thoughts I am currently in the military and wanted to choose the MHS to research what type of health information systems are within the organizations.

As per the basic knowledge about this procedure all active duty military medic should be able to determine the level of the urgency required in patient care in order to provide the essential medical care. In most of the cases, determining the seriousness of the illness or injury is the first basic step, which can actually save the time of the patient and the health care provider himself and the available resources in the treatment

The cost associated with sending a military member to the hospital for an evaluation averages between $1300 and $1800. The average cost is around $1550 for a hospital bill from the emergency department. The ability to assess members on site as to who requires an evaluation at the emergency department and who can remain on site plays a large role in the overall operation of the Air force and the evolution itself. Being able to treat basic medical problems, I estimate an additional $30,000 dollars was saved, members were able to continue to train, and most impartially they remained in good health. Those members, who required a higher

Probably one of the biggest aspects of the Army’s Total Compensation plan is the free medical coverage provided to all soldiers. I cannot think of another organization that offers a totally cost free medical package for its employees. Also, as I mentioned earlier, the leadership in the Army is very supportive of soldiers attending medical appointments in order to maintain a high level of medical readiness, which is a critical aspect of the Army being able to conduct its mission. Soldiers do not see a physician when they are injured or ill initially. The first line of medical screening includes unit medical personnel, which includes medics and the unit physician’s assistant. If it is determined that the soldier will require treatment or diagnosis from a physician they are then referred to a doctor. This is a key way that the Army saves money on its no cost medical coverage. By not having a soldier be seen by a physician immediately and having a lower ranking medic, who gets paid much less, conduct the initial assessment and possibly remedy the situation, the Army save substantial money. Of course, if a soldier is critically injured or ill they can always go to the military installation emergency room for treatment or call 911 for assistance. Depending on the nature of the injury or illness, and whether or not the appropriate physician or specialist is available at the military installation, a soldier

The vision, mission and values for Army Medicine at WINN Army Community Hospital is all about strengthening our nation’s health of our Army Soldiers. Army medicine provides quality, safe and consistent patient experiences, healthy lifestyles and behavior, a focus on readiness, injury and illness prevention and saves lives.

The Department of Defense has multiple components supporting our nation with servicemen, servicewomen, and their dependents around the world and in support of the United States of America. The healthcare of these individuals is a critical mission for the United States of America. There was a time in recent history that each component of the United States of America military was the responsibility of each component of the armed services. Recently the United States of America determined that the health care of the service members and their families need a centralized health care agency. On October 1, 2013, the Defense Health Agency was established. This research paper will discuss the primary role and purpose of the Defense Health Agency and how it performs the critical mission of serving the health needs of the Department of Defense.