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Staying at the Cutting Edge: Partnership With a Level 1 Trauma Center Improves Clinical Currency and Wartime Readiness for Military Surgeons.

Authors :
Saldanha V
Yi F
Lewis JD
Ingalls NK
Source :
Military medicine [Mil Med] 2016 May; Vol. 181 (5), pp. 459-62.
Publication Year :
2016

Abstract

Introduction: Surgical currency is a critical component of medical corps readiness. We report a review of surgeons embedded into a civilian institution and analyze whether this improves surgical currency and wartime readiness.<br />Methods: Patient management and operative volume were acquired from four surgeons embedded at a civilian institution and compared to operative case loads of surgeons based at a military treatment facility (MTF).<br />Results: The surgeons embedded in the civilian institution had a mean of 49.3 cases compared to a mean of 8.3 cases for surgeons at the MTF over this 6-month period. In addition, the embedded surgeons obtained 44.4 to 94.7% of these cases during their civilian experience as opposed to cases done at the MTF. The cases performed by the embedded orthopedic surgeon (n = 247) was over 20 times the mean number of cases (mean = 12) performed at the MTF. Over a 6-month period, the trauma surgeon and general surgeon each evaluated 150 and 170 new trauma patients, respectively. In addition, the trauma/critical care surgeon cared for 250 critical care patients over this same 6-month period.<br />Conclusion: This study demonstrates that embedding surgeons into a civilian institution allows them to maintain skill sets critical for currency and wartime readiness.<br /> (Reprint & Copyright © 2016 Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S.)

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1930-613X
Volume :
181
Issue :
5
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Military medicine
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
27136653
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.7205/MILMED-D-15-00080