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by Ed Drohan
Europe Regional Medical Command Public Affairs
HEIDELBERG, Germany — With very few exceptions, a medical emergency or an afterhours urgent medical need for military members and their families assigned to Europe will require a visit to a host nation hospital for care.
Following any health care that is received at a host nation hospital or clinic, it is important to make contact with or visit your military treatment facility primary care manager to inform them that you were seen in the community. Timely communication with your primary care manager is important to ensure the care you received in the community can be coordinated with your ongoing treatment plan and documented in your medical records.
Service members and their families who need to be admitted to a host nation hospital for an emergency should notify their patient liaison as soon as possible after admission, or have a family member or friend make the notification if they are incapacitated. The patient liaison will ensure the military treatment facility is notified about the admission.
If you are seen for care but not admitted, you should call your primary care manager at the MTF to inform them that you were seen by a host nation provider. Informing your primary care manager team is important for several reasons.
“Urgent and emergent visits often require follow-up care to ensure all medical needs have been addressed, any ongoing care is continued and any treatment rendered can be safely incorporated into your overall plan for health.
Without patients taking an active role in their care, medical records from host nation facilities may take several weeks to be received and translated before they are available to their PCM,” said Col. Lance Raney, Europe Regional Medical Command chief of clinical operations. “Our patient liaisons do a great job of proactively identifying patients admitted to hospitals, but when service members and their family members are not admitted, we may not know about their care until we receive the record for translation.”
Contact information for your clinic, is available at http://ermc.amedd.army.mil/MTF/index.html.
For more information on patient liaisons, visit http://ermc.amedd.army.mil/Patient_Liaison_PDF_file.pdf.
In order to ensure health care safety, health care must be a coordinated effort between you, your primary care manager team and any care received outside of your enrolled clinic.
Play an active role in your journey to wellness. Team with your primary care manager to help optimize the health and the readiness of the Army.
