ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Roughly 500 soldiers are on the ground setting up an emergency 250-bed field hospital in the Seattle area as it prepares to open to patients, senior leaders said.

“We’ll be ready to go early next week,” said Lt. Col. Jason Hughes, commander of the 10th Field Hospital, during a press briefing April 2.

Inside the CenturyLink Field Event Center, Army medical staff will see non-COVID-19 patients to alleviate some stress on local hospitals and clinics overwhelmed by the growing coronavirus pandemic.

Facing what it calls a “severe blood shortage due to an unprecedented number of blood drive cancellations,” the American Red Cross is asking healthy people to consider giving critically needed blood.

Blood shortages are a fallout from the coronavirus outbreak that has led many businesses to close or greatly reduce operations.

“Donating blood is a safe process, and people should not hesitate to give or receive blood,” the Red Cross says in a statement. “Eligible and healthy donors are strongly urged to make an appointment to give soon.”

The Army is continuing to grow a program that partners with civilian hospitals and trauma centers to give combat medics more hands-on experience, the Army surgeon general said.

“Our program is growing tremendously within the Army,” Lt. Gen. R. Scott Dingle told the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on defense March 5.

The Army wants to delay further transfer of its major military hospitals to the Defense Health Agency in a move intended to temporarily halt a global merger.

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said he is not opposed to the health care reform effort aimed at increasing efficiencies and standardizing practices across the Defense Department. What does worry him is the timing.

Consolidation and reform of the military health care system remains a priority for Congress.

In a report accompanying the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, negotiators who worked on the bill said they “are aware of a lack of consensus in the [Defense] Department on implementing the reforms required by law but see no reason to change direction.”

Moving wounded soldiers from the frontlines to the point of care as quickly and safely as possible in a war zone involves a lot of work and adrenaline—followed by sheer terror, a former Army medical evacuation pilot said.

“It was a life-changing experience for me,” said retired Col. Merle Snyder, while speaking on a panel of medevac pilots at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. While serving as a medevac pilot during the Vietnam War, the then-chief warrant officer was credited with evacuating more than 3,000 patients.

“It gave me reason for serving,” he said.

One of the biggest challenges facing military medicine is finding enough doctors and other health care professionals to serve during a major conflict, the nominee to head the Military Healthcare System says.

Thomas McCaffery, a California health services professional who has been acting assistant defense secretary for health affairs, has 25 years of experience, most recently as an executive with Blue Shield of California, a health plan with 4 million members. The military health system is even bigger, with 9.4 million beneficiaries and a $50 billion annual budget.

The so-called golden hour of military medical care, focused on getting caualties from the battlefield to a treatment facility within 60 minutes to improve survival odds, hurts casualty-care planning for the future, warns an Army Reserve surgeon who is also a University of Cincinnati trauma and critical care professor.

Army medicine is playing a “fundamental role” in the service’s push to expand capabilities, advising cross-functional teams about issues related to future battlefield health care and medical evacuation, Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Nadja West said.