United States Army Medical Command
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The U.S. Army Medical Department (MEDCOM) is composed of the U.S. Army's fixed hospitals and dental facilities; preventive care, medical research, development and training institutions; and a veterinary command that provides food inspection and animal care services for the entire Department of Defense.
When Army field hospitals deploy, most clinical professional and support personnel come from the Army Medical Department's fixed facilities. Typically, deployments are not in support of traditional combat scenarios; rather, they deploy for humanitarian assistance, peacekeeping, and other stability and support operations. Under the Professional Officer Filler System, or PROFIS, up to 26 percent of MEDCOM physicians and 43 percent of MEDCOM nurses are sent to field units during a full deployment. To replace PROFIS losses, Reserve units and Individual Mobilization Augmentees (non-unit reservists) are mobilized to work in medical treatment facilities. The department also provides trained medical specialists to the Army's combat medical units, which are assigned directly to combatant commanders.
Many Army Reserve and Army National Guard units deploy in support of the Army Medical Department. The Army depends heavily on its Reserve component for medical support—about 63 percent of the Army's medical forces are in the Reserve component.
All the while, MEDCOM maintains day-to-day health care for soldiers, retired soldiers and the families of both. Despite the wide range of responsibilities involved in providing health care in traditional settings as well as on the battlefield, the Army Medical Department's quality of care for America's Army compares very favorably with that of civilian health organizations, when measured by civilian standards. Many Army medical facilities report on their own quality-of-care standards on their individual World Wide Web sites.
Links
Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington DC (http://www.wramc.amedd.army.mil/)
Tripler Army Medical Center, Hawaii (http://www.tamc.amedd.army.mil/)
Brook Army Medical Center, Texas (http://www.gprmc.amedd.army.mil/BAMC/)
Landstuhl Army Medical Center, Germany (http://www.landstuhl.healthcare.hqusareur.army.mil/)