Photo By Douglas Stutz | Sharing from the top…Capt. Bryan Spalding, Expeditionary Medical Facility Bravo,...... read more read more
They’re medical, maneuverable, and mission-essential.
Based upon such historical lineage as mobile army surgical hospitals used in the Korean War and Navy fleet hospitals deployed at the onset of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Navy Medicine’s expeditionary medical facility is an advanced platforms specifically designed to provide a ready medical team capable of treating casualties in any contingency operation setting.
Command leadership of Expeditionary Medical Facility Bravo conducted planning and orientation sessions recently with Navy Medicine Readiness Training Command Bremerton doctors, nurses and hospital corpsmen assigned to EMF Bravo to discuss preparation and training requirements if they are called upon to respond to any current and future requirements.
“We are an expeditionary medical facility. What does that mean? We are a medical facility that will go places. When something happens somewhere in the world we can get sent out. We will go and set up a hospital. We have 150 bed capacity. We’re not just a ramshackle tent, we’re a full-on hospital that has operating rooms, radiology imaging, lab capabilities. Everything that can be done in a normal hospital can be done in our EMF,” explained Capt. Bryan Spalding, EMF Bravo commanding officer.
There are several stages of preparation for the designated personnel assigned to man the EMF. Planning includes such requirements as familiarization education of the platform, chemical biological (and) radiological (CBR) protection training, operational readiness training, and more.
Additional training will have the selected team – which also includes other Navy Medicine personnel from three other military treatment facilities - work together to build the entire EMF Bravo, followed by conducting planned exercises designed to hone their individual and team skills in dealing with casualties.
If – and when – they deploy, EMF Bravo will essentially be a self-sustaining medical facility, except for logistical and other base support needs from the theater commanding officer or task force commander. It is designed and outfitted to be assembled by the assigned staff and to be fully operational in 10 days, which is in conjunction with site preparation and the transport of components and personnel.
“Our EMF could be deployed because of weather and/or a natural disaster. It could be deployed in a peace mission. But it also could be deployed in major combat operations. That’s what an EMF is designed for. When we’re told, “prepare to deploy,” we’re the one who are going to go,” added Cmdr. Boyce (Randy) Gire, EMF Bravo executive officer.
An expeditionary medical facility like EMF Bravo can accomplish such objectives as provide resuscitative medical care to maximize the return-to-duty of personnel, thus minimizing manpower replacement requirements; deliver a rapidly deployable Navy Medicine asset at any global location to support deployed forces and combat operations; furnish needed hospital beds to augment outside continental United States medical facilities; and reduce aeromedical evacuation and subsequent troop replacement requirements.
They will offer a range of surgical specialties and general dentistry, along with medical specialties and clinical support services to provide a host of similar functions as a large hospital.
EMF Bravo will be augmented by Navy Medical Corps, Medical Service Corps, Nurse Corps and Dental Corps officers, along with a sizable contingent of Navy Hospital Corps and other enlisted ranks and rates.
“My job is to work on our welfare and advise the commanding officer and executive officer on enlisted matters,” stated EMF Bravo Command Master Chief Shannon Bia. “In Navy Medicine, we fit into the surgeon general’s 4Ps – which stand for people, performance, power and platform. How do we align ourselves to that? By our availability to others, family and our mission; by our affability in working and supporting each other up and down the chain of command; and by our ability working on our knowledge and skills.”
NHB has been part of providing support for EMF Bravo for quite some time, as well as having an established historical precedence in staffing, readying, and deploying in the forward deployable fleet hospitals, most notably in 2003 to support Operation Enduring Freedom and the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. At that time, it was the initial, largest, and longest deployed fleet hospital in Navy Medicine and provided direct medical care to approximately 1,400 patients that included more than 250 surgeries.
Navy Medicine has shifted it’s focus back to the EMF concept, away from the norm during the height of OEF and OIF where NHB staff were routinely deployed on an individual augmentee basis to hospital settings as the NATO Role 3 Multinational Medical Unit at Kandahar Air Base, Afghanistan.
The awareness now is having the flexibility to deploy to a variety of ship and shore locales, from littoral to austere environments and main the highest levels of survivability in any conflict.
| Date Taken: | 01.31.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 01.31.2023 14:39 |
| Story ID: | 437555 |
| Location: | BREMERTON, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 660 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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