In 2018, Blanchfield Army Community Hospital personnel remained focused on their top three priorities: Providing safe quality care to Soldiers, retirees and Families, readiness and the transition of the military health system to the Defense Health Agency.
Safe, quality care
“What I need us all to do as a health care system is understand that some things are foundationally not changed. So, I have three priorities,” Brig. Gen. Telita Crosland said during her visit to Blanchfield in June after assuming command of Regional Health Command-Atlantic. “The first priority is access to safe, quality health care. As I said, we’re a health care system and that is foundational and that is also what enables my second priority, which is readiness. That’s the Army’s Chief of Staff and Surgeon General of the Army’s priority. A lot of folks have chatted with me and asked me why it is No. 2 for me. The way that Army Medicine generates readiness and meets the Chief of Staff and the Surgeon General’s priority is by running a safe, quality health care system and having access to that system and that’s how we maintain readiness and deliver readiness to the Army. Those two are the priorities at the treatment facilities across the region.”
Blanchfield offers both Soldier- and patient-centered medical homes for the more than 70,000 enrolled Soldiers, retirees and their Family members receiving primary care. Additionally, numerous specialty care services including emergency medicine, surgery, integrated disability evaluation, traumatic brain injury, behavioral health, women’s health and inpatient care are provided to more than 101,000 eligible beneficiaries in the 40-mile radius of Fort Campbell’s health readiness platform. Thirty-four buildings, with one offered within the Clarksville community, consists of the 1,014,510 square feet accommodating the medical needs of the hospital, expanding to both Tennessee and Kentucky residents.
Readiness
On Fort Campbell, BACH supports line commanders to help keep their warfighters medically ready to deploy. In October, Lt. Gen. Nadja Y. West, U.S. Army surgeon general and commanding general U.S. Army Medical Command, visited Fort Campbell and met with line commanders to ensure that Blanchfield was supporting medical readiness.
“When we go around [the Army] one of the things Command Sgt. Maj. [Michael A.] Gragg and I insist upon doing is meeting with the command teams on the installations because that’s a perspective that we need, to make sure we’re providing the support that they deserve,” West said. “We can’t know that unless we hear it from them.”
Working together BACH and unit medical personnel helped nearly 86 percent of Fort Campbell-based Soldiers reach deployable status of Medical Readiness Class 1 or 2, slightly ahead of the Army average.
MRC 1 refers to Soldiers meeting all medical and dental requirements and MRC 2 refers to any requirements, such as immunizations, that can be resolved within 72 hours.
An addition to Fort Campbell, this year the hospital commander assumed responsibility for the medical missions on Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, and Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois. A team from BACH was sent to Fort McCoy to establish a medical Soldier readiness processing site that could enable medical readiness for a large-scale Reserve mobilization.
“We began our work to support this training mission in December of 2017. The first thing we saw when we arrived at Fort McCoy was potential,” said Maj. Gilberto Rodriguez, an operations officer at BACH, who was part of a team that had the facility renovated and ready for Lt. Gen. Charles Luckey, chief of Army Reserve and commanding general U.S. Army Reserve Command, within a few months. “There is a lot that went into it, but the important thing is that we are ready to support Soldiers through the medical process at Fort McCoy, if needed.”
Elsewhere, BACH Soldiers deployed to support expeditionary health care across a full range of military operations. Soldiers deployed to support 17 different missions including operations Inherent Resolve, Freedoms Sentinel, Joint Guardian and Defense Support to Civil Authorities.
Transformation
The National Defense Authorization Act of 2017 called for transitioning the management of the three separate military health systems of the Army, Navy and Air Force to one, managed by a single Defense Health Agency. The Army and the other branches of service begin a phased transitioning of facilities this year.
The change is designed to eliminate duplicate functions of three separate health systems by transforming them into one system. The Defense Health Agency is a joint service enterprise that will be responsible for budgets, information technology, healthcare administration and management, administrative policy and procedure, military medical construction and other matters. Because it is administrative in nature, the transition should be transparent to beneficiaries who receive care.
No date has been set yet for BACH’s transition but information will be shared with beneficiaries and employees as it becomes available.
Commander’s vision
This year, BACH was named favorite hospital in The Leaf Chronicle’s annual Readers’ Choice Award. Hospital commander, Col. Anthony McQueen said he is proud of his team and has set his course for the new year.
“The U.S. Army Medical Department Activity-Fort Campbell is an essential component of the military health care system and provides the central capability that promotes health and enables readiness, allowing Soldiers to fight and win our nation’s wars,” McQueen said. “Our Fort Campbell team will continue to deliver world-class care and experiences for Soldiers, Families and retirees in and around the Fort Campbell community. We must treat everyone, patients and staff, with dignity and respect, and support each other in all endeavors.”