Photo By JoAnne Castagna | The "Activities of Daily Living Room" is part of the services provided by the Soldiers...... read more read more
When American Soldiers leave home to fight for their country, many return with various injuries. “To get the critical health treatment they need many have to go to places like Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda Md. where they have to separate from their units and uproot their families so that they can be with them. This can cause great anxiety, stress and depression complicating their health conditions further,” said Staff Sgt. Elizandro Gonzales, Occupational Therapy (Non-commissioned officer in charge) at Fort Drum N.Y. Medical Department Activity.
This will now be a thing of the past. The U.S. Army Medical Department Activity has redesigned its health care services so that Soldiers can remain on their installations with their units and families and promptly receive the critical care they need all in one place.
This is now taking place at Fort Drum, home of the 10th Mountain Division (LI), one of the most deployed divisions in the U.S. Army.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District, the Army’s construction agent, recently completed the construction of two Soldier medical clinics on the installation that is using this new design.
According to Gonzales, “Many studies have shown that people who are undergoing a healing process or who are trying to recover, that their stress level is directly affected by their ability to heal, so anything we can do to lower stress is just going to be better for the patient.”
The new clinics are the Soldier Specialty Care Clinic and the Bowe Troop Medical Clinic. Both clinics were constructed by the contractor, Structural Associates Inc. of Syracuse, New York under the management of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The clinics are part of an existing medical complex on the installation and were added to help establish the Army’s new Soldier health care design and to support medical readiness.
The 23,000 square foot clinics were constructed with energy efficient features making it Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certifiable.
Some of these energy efficient features include low ampere lighting fixtures, double thermal windows, white roofing to reflect heat, and high efficiency boiler, air conditioning and heating systems.
Bowe Troop Medical Clinic
This clinic is considered a one stop shop for Soldiers to receive primary care and medical readiness services. The clinic also provides medical care for American and Canadian Air Force members visiting the installation.
The clinic includes space for 16 examination rooms, a radiology department, medical records department, a laboratory department, procedure room, and triage area.
“When a Soldier comes in to see us we can usually get them an appointment within 24 hours,” said Maj. Tranessia M. Hanson, Chief, Bowe Troop Medical Clinic Complex. “You don't see this type of care in a lot of places. In the past this would take three days and now we can get treat them in less than 24 hours.”
Soldiers who are patients at this clinic who may need additional medical care can receive a referral and receive treatment at the recently completed the Soldier Specialty Care Clinic.
The Soldier Specialty Care Clinic
The Soldier Specialty Care Clinic is connected to the Guthrie Ambulatory Healthcare Clinic and will provide occupational therapy services and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) care to Soldiers.
“Soldiers can receive functional fitness treatment which will allow them to return to duty faster and better. They can get functional evaluations and functional capacity evaluations which is ultimately an assessment of their capability to perform,” said Gonzales.
“This has implications. It can return a soldier to duty with a better explanation for their chain of command of their capabilities or it can provide a medical board a very clear picture of the deficits that these Soldiers have.”
Gonzales added that the Soldiers who come into this clinic benefit greatly because the facility is consolidated and has three occupational therapies under one roof.
“In the past soldiers needing different care would have to go to different medical centers spread-out on the installation. Now all occupational therapy treatment is under one roof,” said Staff Sgt. Gonzales.
He continued, “This allows for inter-specialty consultation. A provider from the TBI section who suspects that a patient might benefit from something the Orthopedic section has to offer can just walk right down the hallway. They can consult with the providers in those sections and come up with a better clearer treatment plan. That will hopefully be more effective in returning the Soldiers back to duty or return them to any level of independence they may not currently have.”
Helping Soldiers recover is performed in many different ways. One of the ways the health care providers does this is by using activities of the Daily Living Room.
This is a room that is set up like a real functioning home to help Soldiers perform self-care tasks, such as bathing, eating, grooming, feeding and taking care of others. Health care providers work with Soldiers, sometimes with the assistance of families members, to help them do such things as make their bed, make coffee, and cook dinner for their family.
Just outside of this room there is a Healing Garden where Soldiers can rest before or after their therapy. The garden is also part of the Army’s new Soldier healthcare design.
Gonzales said, “We want Soldiers to be in an environment that is conducive to their rehabilitation and guided by skilled therapy staff which is what we have here. Overall it's going to be much better for the Soldiers. This set up is the new plan of Army wide health facilities. It's a lot of exciting stuff.”
| Date Taken: | 04.04.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 04.04.2016 16:01 |
| Story ID: | 194327 |
| Location: | WATERTOWN, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 101 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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