Chronology of the Military Training Program
In 1995, the General Accounting Office (GAO) reported that only five percent of U.S. military medical treatment facility diagnoses matched battlefield injuries. The GAO recommended that the military pursue agreements with trauma centers for medical personnel to acquire the education and training required.
In 2002, Scottsdale Healthcare met with local and national Air National Guard leaders to discuss the benefit of trauma training for military medical personnel at Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn. A panel of military and civilian physicians, nurses and medical technicians created a curriculum and rotational schedule that enables the military and civilian healthcare providers to develop and sustain trauma skills.
Scottsdale Healthcare secured malpractice coverage for program participants through its self-insurance program and achieved temporary licensure privileges from the Board of Medical Examiners for physicians temporarily assigned for training from other states. The state nursing board did not determine a need for temporary licensure privileges.
In 2004, Scottsdale Healthcare signed the first Memorandum of Understanding with the Arizona Air National Guard. In subsequent years, Scottsdale Healthcare gained agreements with the national-level Air National Guard Bureau, Luke and Davis Monthan Air Force Base medical departments, active and reserve, as well as Army medical units.
As of 2008, more than 300 military medical personnel had trained at Scottsdale Healthcare and achieved an average of over 95 percent success in demonstrating proficiency in necessary trauma skills.
In 2007, Scottsdale Healthcare conducted an internal assessment of the training program and determined a need to standardize schedules, improve the process for participant application, develop a more robust curriculum and evaluation strategy and modify the rotations to better fit the military’s needs for proficiency in treating the kinds of injuries observed in Iraq and Afghanistan. This assessment resulted in improvements in the program’s structure and procedures and the addition of two full-time positions for a program coordinator and medical trainer. In addition, Scottsdale Healthcare signed an agreement with Maricopa Integrated Health System, the Maricopa County hospital system, to add burn training to the program.
Learning from Each Other
Scottsdale Healthcare’s Military Trauma Training Program fosters a symbiotic relationship between its military and civilian partners. Experiences gained in wartime and through international alliances have a direct impact on civilian medical practices. This military information sharing has improved patient trauma care clinical procedures. Examples of improvements resulting from such collaborations include:
The National Guard Bureau’s work with Israeli specialists to develop an Advanced Mental Health Life Support curriculum, designed to improve resiliency among emergency room physicians, nurses and staff and decrease PTSDs;
Treatments, such as dialysis, developed for severely injured soldiers;
The use of wound dressing products extracted from shrimp shells;
The use of “superglue” and most recently, fibrin-laced bandages to temporarily stop bleeding before transport to a medical facility.
Understanding the applicability of military trauma treatment procedures to routine clinical applications and expediting new practices from the theater to domestic patient care are highly beneficial.
The Scottsdale Healthcare’s Military Trauma Training Program provides an excellent venue for wartime lessons to be shared in a hands-on trauma treatment environment with military healthcare providers.