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AF, AMC "Top Docs" visit DGMC

  • Published
  • By Jim Spellman
  • 60th MEDICAL GROUP
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  The hallways and clinics of David Grant USAF Medical Center were filled with stars July 7 when the Air Force and Air Mobility Command "Top Docs" visited.

Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Charles B. Green, surgeon general of the Air Force, and Maj. Gen. (Dr.) Douglas J. Robb, Air Mobility Command command surgeon, spent the day with DGMC personnel, getting a glimpse into the future of Air Force medicine.

During the past three years, DGMC has witnessed numerous upgrades and renovations to the largest Air Force medical facility on the West Coast. A special joint incentive fund between the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs has brought state-of-the-art equipment, new services and capabilities to the medical center.

Eschewing formal ceremony and protocol, General Green arrived and simply introduced himself during his surgeon general call as "the man who works for that person right there," pointing to his chief of the medical enlisted force, Chief Master Sgt. Charles Cole. The two provided a "disruptive innovation" briefing to the medical staff, highlighting areas where DGMC and Team Travis personnel are currently engaged in this innovation.

Citing specific cases ranging from air evacuation of a wounded British soldier who lost a lung in battle to another servicemember with an unexploded 14.5 mm shell lodged in his head to humanitarian missions with DGMC personnel providing medical aid to the citizens of Haiti, General Green and Chief Cole pointed out that it takes "almost a thousand people to move somebody with a tramatic injury," involving as many as three separate aircraft in some extreme cases.

"Something to be exquisitely proud of is that if you arrived at a hopital at Balad or Bagram - both Air Force hospitals by the way - regardless of the severity of your injury today, you have a 96 percent chance of survival," said General Green. "That's unheard of in previous conflicts and you should be proud because you put that system together. In fact, we chose Travis to be the lead when we went out to Bagram."

After a breakfast meeting with the most junior enlisted personnel currently assigned to DGMC, Generals Green and Robb toured the recently opened Joint DoD/VA hemodialysis clinic and radiation oncology clinic and took a peek into the first portion of the new clinical labs, scheduled to open at the end of July.

Accompanied after lunch by Col. James Vechery, 60th Air Mobility Wing commander, the entourage was briefed on a DGMC-specific Air Force Special Operations for the 21st Century improvement process. The AFSO 21 improvement brief featured an interactive medical demonstration that involved a simulated patient who was experiencing a heart attack in DGMC's emergency department.

The patient in this case is a high-fidelity, computer-operated mannequin, managed under the watchful eyes of staff from the DGMC Simulation Center. As physicians, nurses and medical technicians worked in coordinated unison, the demonstration highlighted the usage of DOD's newest inpatient electronic medical record. For the past year, DGMC has served as a "pathfinder" and testbed facility for the system before it is rolled out Air Force-wide.

With the mannequin "stabilized," the entourage followed the patient movement process up to the third floor where a new cardiac catheter lab is being put through its final stages of system tests. The cath lab is scheduled to assume its first cases in October, just as the hybrid and robotically assisted cardiovascular operating room will open its doors to heart patients in conjunction with a dedicated cardiovascular intensive care unit.

In the meantime, DGMC staff from cardiovascular surgeons and nurses to medical technicians are maintaining their proficiency and currency while treating patients alongside their medical partners at University of California Davis Medical Center until the transition into the new facilities takes place.

"What we do is health care. It's the location that changes," said Chief Cole. "And at the center of all that are great people like you. We wouldn't have success stories that General Green talked about if it wasn't for the spirit of innovation, teamwork and esprit de corps that you have at Travis."

"What we do here under readiness -- because 'Readiness is Job One' -- we take that forward into the area of responsibility," Chief Cole explained. "And we take those lessons learned from the AOR and we bring them back to our home station of medical care, so everything we do is just along that cycle of improving our patient care and capability."

Both "top docs" were extremely impressed with the extensive collaboration between DGMC, Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care System and UC Davis Medical Center. General Green personally thanked Dr. Brian O'Neill, director of VANCHS, and Ann Madden Rice, chief executive officer of UC Davis Medical Center, with surgeon general coins in recognition of their support to Airmen, valued veterans, and their families.

"I look forward to a lasting collegial relationship with both VANCHCS and UC Davis Medical Center," said General Green.

General Robb said the sum of our partnership is greater than the parts.

"I continue to be amazed at the opportunities in patient care, staff development and community support that DGMC's partnership with VANCHS and UC Davis Medical Center has opened for our beneficiary population," he said.

General Green also thanked Colonel Vechery with a surgeon general coin for his full and continuing support of the Air Force Medical Service's mission.

"I'm proud of the team of professionals that we have here at DGMC," Colonel Vechery said. "They are doing amazing things everyday to care for our Airmen and their families."