Medical Readiness within Inpatient Platforms

The readiness of the military medical force to provide care in an operational environment has been a subject of particular concern to the Congress, as reflected in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017. Studies have suggested there may be an insufficient volume and diversity of inpatient care at military treatment facilities (MTFs) to sustain the readiness-related clinical skills needed by providers when deployed to a conflict zone. This paper attempts to measure the extent to which MTF inpatient workload volume and diversity of care are sufficient to sustain the readiness-related skills of military surgeons and identifies and evaluates potential solutions to reduce or eliminate any identified gaps.