Every person counts in mission accomplishment

Col. Rhonda Cornum
Landstuhl Regional Medical Center commander


***image1***During commander’s call, I like to use the time to tell our personnel at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center exactly how important they are to the organization’s success.
LRMC has changed a lot since Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom began. So much, in fact, that we have expanded the facility by adding more than 100 temporary buildings and greatly increasing the size of our staff.
The number of operating rooms has doubled from four to eight. The Intensive Care Unit increased in bed size from six to 20 and the Deployed Warrior Medical Management Center went from non-existent to a staff of 77 with an effective patient tracking system that we developed. On a typical day, we admit 34 patients, up 213 percent from 2001.
We have 1,839 personnel, including 351 Army officers, 581Army enlisted, 120 Air Force officers, 226 Air Force enlisted, nine Navy personnel, four Marines and 543 civilians.
It’s important to me that our staff know just how much they accomplish on a daily basis. Also, the efficiency at which they operate is what allows this organization to continue to provide service to our steady stream of injured servicemembers.
While accomplishing so much here, LRMC also successfully mobilized and demobilized 600 personnel from the 94th and 349th General Hospitals, integrated more than 300 Air Force augmentees from both active and reserve components, and repatriated 14 prisoners of war, hostages and isolated personnel.
According to 2004 data, it takes LRMC 2.4 people to get a patient in and out of our hospital. By itself, that figure may not leap off the page. However, it does when compared to statistics from other Military Treatment Facilities in Europe.
Most other MTFs in Europe and in the continental U.S. require four or more people to accomplish the same thing. This merely illustrates how efficient our staff is at accomplishing great things while, at times, being understaffed.
As of Aug. 13, our hospital has treated 17,464 patients from 35 countries since OEF and OIF began. We have treated people from such countries as Afghanistan and the Sudan. And with no immediate end to the conflict in sight, these numbers are sure to steadily increase.
To accommodate the patients in a more comfortable manner, we continue to expand. A new vaccination health clinic is underway and other new or renovated clinics already have been completed. These include a new audiology and speech clinic, renovation of the neurology clinic and medical and surgical ward. Many thanks must be given to our facilities management division.
The largest upcoming project will be air conditioning installation for the entire hospital.
I just want everyone who has had a hand in this mission to know how thankful I, and the rest of the command team, are for what you have done and continue to do. You make it possible for us to perform any mission, anywhere.