AMA officials visit LRMC, Ramstein

***image2***Two of the highest ranking doctors from the United States toured Ramstein and the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center this week.

Dr. William Plested III is the president of the American Medical Association, an organization that helps doctors by uniting them nationwide and addressing professional and public health issues. The former president, Dr. J. Edward Hill, and Maj. Gen. Gerald Harmon, Air National Guard assistant to the surgeon general, accompanied him on the tour.

“I’m interested in the care our Soldiers are getting,” said Dr. Plested. “My partner was the first American surgeon in Iraq. He went across with the Marines and I wanted to see what he was doing while I was minding the store.”

Members of the Ramstein medical community educated the doctors on the transporting process, including a tour of a C-130 Hercules static display, used to move patients out of the deployment theater.

“Everyone knows the war is going on and we have a lot of troops getting hurt,” said Tech. Sgt. Tremayne Neals, 86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron technician.  “That’s the purpose of this static; to show them some of our capabilities for bringing our troops home.”

This aeromedical evacuation process demonstrates a key component of global mobility. During the Vietnam era, it took 45 days to return casualties home. In Desert Storm it took 10. Now it only takes three.  

“One of the problems we have in the United States is hand-offs,” said Dr. Hill.  “When a patient is handed off from one care group to another. That’s usually when errors occur. With the military, it’s a transition so well done that you don’t run the risk of those mistakes.”

The doctors also toured the Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility and the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.