Elmendorf hospital named best in Air Force

By Capt. Kelley Jeter

Special to the Frontiersman

ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE — It took 100 words to convince the U.S. Air Force surgeon general that the 3rd Medical Group is the best in the Air Force.

At the Department of Defense Military Health Systems annual conference last month, the Air Force announced its choice after reviewing award package submissions from the worldwide spectrum of its health care organizations, naming the Arctic Medics as the most impressive of them all. The submission was limited to 100 words, which is not much to capture all the outstanding and precedent-setting accomplishments from the 3rd MDG last year. Being as succinct as possible, part of the package articulated the numbers behind the accomplishments, while the other part focused on innovation.

Some innovations from the group last year include the Bringing Alaskans Home initiative, the intense planning for a return and reset of an entire U.S. Army Airborne brigade and an Army National Guard battalion from war zones, establishing a traumatic brain injury (TBI) initiative, enhancing capabilities through the Joint Venture program with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Taakti Topcover program.

Bringing Alaskans Home is a program created by 3rd Medical Group leadership that brought 133 soldiers wounded in Iraq home to Alaska, rather than leaving them in Lower 48 facilities. The program not only brought the patients home, which assisted the healing process, it gave the Arctic Medics extra training in healing combat injuries. It also helped take some financial strain off families, which often bore the expense of billeting themselves near loved ones.

The planning that was required for the return and reset of an entire airborne brigade from a war zone is something no other hospital in the U.S., Air Force has been asked to do.

“The 3rd Medical Group leadership partnered with the Army Medical Command leaders to take on the shared responsibility of bringing in additional medical staff for the task of taking care of the health care needs of an Army brigade and an Army National Guard battalion, both of which simultaneously returned from extensive tours [in the Middle East},” said Maj. Bob McCurry, director of the Anchorage MultiService Market Office in the 3rd MDG. Leadership secured 50 people and $1.7 million in funding for the added requirements.

Bringing several thousand soldiers home from the war zone also brought challenges new to many medics. New forms of armor and protective devices have led to high levels of survival in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, but the militants’ weapon of choice, the improvised explosive device (IED), has also created thousands of brain injuries. The 3rd Medical Group anticipated and prepared for this inevitability even as soldiers were departing in 2006. So far, 94 returned soldiers have been treated for traumatic brain injury in the clinic set up especially for this anticipated need.

The Joint Venture between the 3rd MDG and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) also created opportunities for great improvements in patient care in 2007.

“In this past year, we have increased access by more than 200 percent for veterans in areas such as orthopedics and ophthalmology,” said Dan Anderson, 3rd MDG Joint Venture and manpower manager. “We also were approved for joint incentive fund projects in several areas. These projects not only provide better access to care for veterans, but also save dollars for both agencies by working together.”

Fifty-six VA joint replacements accomplished by the medics at the Elmendorf hospital saved $407,000 by not referring them off base, enhanced readiness training and increased the surgery capacity by 218 percent for the group and 239 percent for VA.

Another program that illustrates the 3rd MDG’s innovation is the Taakti Topcover program that partners Arctic Medics with a civilian organization to make trips to rural Alaska to provide health care.

This program gives 3rd MDG airmen the opportunity to train in an austere environment, testing their ability to adapt and save lives. They go to small, remote Alaska villages and set up clinics for general practice, dentistry and optometry, and provide health education opportunities for school children. In 2007, the medics saw these underserved patients in 345 appointments and conducted 53 various medical procedures.

The year was also good for the 3rd MDG in that it recaptured expenses from referrals. In 2006, due to the large number of deployments in the group, referrals for care outside the Elmendorf hospital were at an all-time high. Referrals cost money and recapturing those expenses by bringing the appointments back on base was a priority in 2007, leading to $360,000 in savings.

Major McCurry summed it up: “I think, in essence, what we have done and will continue to do is function as an efficient, well-disciplined team that takes great pride in executing our commander’s vision of always looking for opportunities to say ‘yes’,” McCurry said.