WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a prelude to war! 000618. Medical experts face epidemic of missing records by Army Staff Sgt. Kathleen T. Rhem American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Military medical experts are facing a new kind of epidemic, one that doesn't involve a disease but can affect patients' health nonetheless -- missing medical records. "We have a very different culture in the military as far as the custody and control of medical records goes," said Army Col. Susan McMarlin, director of program analysis with the TRICARE Management Activity here. "I don't know how it all got started, but we've really gotten ourselves into an extremely relaxed atmosphere as far as maintaining the records. "It has become the rule rather than the exception in some places for patients to maintain their records," she said. "In the civilian sector, such a situation, where a patient maintains a legal medical document, is not even comprehensible." McMarlin said that individuals are welcome to make copies of any documents in their medical records. The records themselves are federal property, however, and it's the servicing medical treatment facility's responsibility to maintain them. Besides the fact that's the law, she said, there are several reasons it's important for medical treatment facilities to maintain patients' records. The most basic reason is that having medical records on hand helps physicians assure the quality and continuity of care they give patients, said Army Lt. Col. Michael Montgomery, TRICARE's senior health program analyst for patient administration. An example: "If you had an accident and came into the emergency room, it might matter what medications you're taking or if you have any drug allergies," he said. Another reason is accreditation. "There are standards for all hospitals to be accredited," Montgomery said. "One of those standards is keeping good records." The General Accounting Office and DOD inspector general also review records to verify facilities' workloads. "If we say we have a certain workload but we can't document it through medical records, we can't truly substantiate our patient load," he explained. There are also financial reasons for facilities to maintain good records. The military is required to bill third-party insurance companies for care their patients received in military medical treatment facilities. Medical records are important to substantiate those bills, Montgomery said. It's no secret that medical records belong to the government and members aren't supposed to hold them. The rules about returning them, however, aren't uniformly enforced across the services or even medical treatment facilities, he said. Montgomery said DOD needs to get closer to the civilian sector's way of doing things. "Private-sector physicians are a lot more restrictive of their records. The patient never touches the records," he said. This isn't true in the military, where people move often and receive care at more than one facility, Montgomery acknowledged. "But we need to get away from the attitude that it's OK for the patient to keep the record," he said. McMarlin said the problem really came to prominent focus during a recent DOD IG inspection during which the facilities were given a preselected list of Social Security numbers of people who had recently received care. Some facilities were only able to come up with 25 percent of the requested records, she said. The situation definitely has officials' attention. The assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, Dr. Sue Bailey, advised the services' surgeons general in a January memo that she would "appreciate (their) assistance in assuring our MTFs implement improved custody and control procedures for outpatient medical records." Even though DOD is upgrading to a computerized patient record system that should be completed within three years, the department will still be responsible for maintaining these records. McMarlin said DOD is required to maintain active-duty members' medical records for 50 years. 000617. Pacific Nightingale hits Korean peninsula by Staff Sgt. Karin Wickwire 51st Fighter Wing Public Affairs OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea (AFPN)-- Combining four days of flying with three military services, two countries and one theater of operation may seem like a logistical nightmare, but it provided payoffs in joint and combined training as well as total force cooperation during a recent exercise. Pacific Nightingale II practiced tactical and strategic movement of patients from a combat or disaster area within the Korean theater, to a mobile air staging facility or a contingency hospital and eventually to a permanent hospital off the Korean peninsula, said Maj. Brian Anderson, 7th Air Force chief of medical plans and operations here. To meet this objective, a large part of Pacific Nightingale consisted of training in several areas for the people who would be the primary responders during an aeromedical evacuation contingency or humanitarian operation, Anderson said. "The exercise provided training and orientation for aircrews, both aeromedical and flight crews, at the various air fields they might have to fly into during an aeromedical evacuation contingency," Anderson said. "It also gave us the opportunity to train organic medical crews -- the people who are stationed or deployed here -- on how to prepare aerovac patients in a combat setting." Due to the nature of the exercise, Pacific Nightingale II provided training that can't be gained under other circumstances. "It's providing field training on how to receive and move the kinds of patients we would see in a wartime environment or natural disaster," said Col. (Dr.) Michael White, deployed commander of the 51st Contingency Hospital at Kimhae Air Base, ROK. White is assigned to the 74th Medical Operations Squadron at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. "This training is absolutely vital to our wartime mission," he said. "We take care of severely ill patients on a day-to-day basis at Wright Patterson (Medical Center), but we don't do it under austere conditions and we don't do it with the kind of urgency we would have to deal with in an aerovac situation." The exercise also tested the Air Force's ability to quickly position forces and equipment where needed. "We pulled people from their normal day-to-day environments and moved them to a field situation close to a natural disaster or a combat area. Then we made them stand up their wartime task, which is the care of patients and the movement of severely injured patients," White said. "Both of which happened in a short period of time, providing a realism of practicing something we can't do at home." Another twist to the exercise for White was its joint training aspect. "This is a unique training opportunity because we are a unit that is collocated with the Reserve unit (the 445th Aeromedical Staging Squadron) we would be working with under wartime conditions," White said. "This is truly a total force exercise," White said. "We have brought reservists and active duty medical people to a forward-deployed contingency hospital in Korea; plus we are working with active duty and Reserve units in the aeromedical evacuation process, just like we would do in the event of a real contingency. "This is one of the best examples I can think of seamless integration of the Reserves and the active duty in a single mission. We are training together just the way we would work together in a contingency," he said. This first-time interaction and training during Pacific Nightingale II wasn't limited to active duty and Air Force Reserve medics. Other firsts included setting up mobile aeromedical staging facilities at Suwon Air Base, ROK, and Kunsan AB, ROK; and establishing an aeromedical staging facility at Kadena AB, Japan. The MASF and ASF are holding areas, where patients are kept until aircraft are available to transfer them for additional care, Anderson explained. It is also the first time patients were transferred to the Navy hospital on Okinawa, he added. And, this was the first year the Army's 52nd Medical Battalion practiced helicopter medivac operations during the exercise, Anderson said. Pacific Nightingale II also saw an increased involvement by the exercise's host nation -- the Republic of Korea. While the ROK military once again provided patients for the aeromedical evacuation, this was the first time interpreters for the patients participated, he said. "(The forces here) are in a dual culture and tri-service environment," Anderson said. "Because we live in this unique environment, we need to train this way. "If a wartime situation did occur, the Army would generate a lot of casualties and they don't have the resources on peninsula to take care of everybody," he said. "The ROKAF would have needs as well, because they don't have a large fleet to provide aeromedical evacuation. So they are going to look to (the Air Force) because we have the airlift and the training." (Courtesy of Pacific Air Forces News Service) 000621. Teams gear up for Readiness Challenge TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFPN) -- More than 1,000 people from eight countries will start arriving in the Panama City area April 27 to watch, or participate, in Readiness Challenge VII, an Air Force Civil Engineer, Services and Chaplain Service contingency skills competition. The event runs April 29 through May 5. The competition, held here every two years, allows teams to showcase skills needed in a wartime or contingency situation. Last year's competition was cancelled 10 days before it was due to begin, because of U.S. and Allied military commitments in the Yugoslav region. "Individuals were gearing up for what would be a test of their contingency skills, but, instead of just testing them, they got to use them for real," said Lt. Col. Wayland Patterson, project officer for Readiness Challenge VII. The event features 12 U.S. and four foreign teams -- Canada, the United Kingdom, Norway and Japan. This is the fourth competition for Canada, the second for the United Kingdom and the first for Norway and Japan. In addition to the competing foreign teams, military observers from at least four other nations are expected. The focus is to test the ability of teams to set up and maintain support operations under bare-base, wartime field conditions, including setting up components of a self-sufficient camp with living quarters, work areas, water and food service. Events cover a broad spectrum of wartime skills from force beddown to base recovery. Chaplain competitors are tested on their ability to serve the spiritual and counseling needs of military members in a contingency environment. Patterson described Readiness Challenge as an "excellent training tool" since team members rarely have the opportunity to work in a contingency environment. "During peacetime they take care of the day-to-day operations on an installation, and therefore may not always be familiar with equipment and procedures used during contingencies. They learn, and we learn, and we apply that to real-world operations." (Courtesy of Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency Public Affairs) **COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html <A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
