Wounded Warrior Care
Achieving Excellence in Casualty Care
Today, military medicine is performing around the world, on land, at sea and in the air, saving lives and safely transporting patients to military emergency care within minutes of the initial injury and on to a stateside military treatment facility within 22 hours.
Our patients are transported, from theater, to Joint Base Andrews by the Medical Evacuation (Med Evac) and the Critical Care Air Transport Team (CCATT). The CCATT’s mission is to operate an intensive care unit in an aircraft cabin during flight, adding critical care capability to the U.S. Air Force Aeromedical Evacuation System. CCATT patients have received initial stabilization, but are still critically ill or wounded. They require evacuation from a less capable, to a more capable hospital and evacuation from the combat zone.
Medical training in casualty care with highly technological and state-of-the-art means of rescue and resuscitation is surpassing anything thought possible just a few decades ago. Hands-on courses in advanced training in field medical techniques while dealing with extreme “simulated” combat scenarios has prepared Army, Navy and Air Force practitioners to care for the most important patients they will ever serve.
Furthermore, an integrated health care system supports the individual service member who is returning to the force or transitioning to the civilian workplace. Creating healing environments that encompass both the inpatient and outpatient experience is integral to the renewal of psychological, physical, and spiritual wellness.
Within a framework of patient and family-centered care, a dedicated team of health care professionals facilitates a speedy recovery of Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors and Marines to productive activities of daily living through cutting edge technology, evidence- based design, innovation, and partnerships with volunteer agencies.
Many of our wounded heroes transition to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for rehabilitative care. To help this process, the VA created a program called “Seamless Transition,” that assigns a VA representative to ensure a smooth evolution of medical services. WRNMMC is one of the few facilities with a representative from this program.
Empowering Our Wounded Ill and Injured (WII) Wounded Warrior Care and Transition (WWCT) empowers WII and transitioning service members and their families by:
- Providing Recovery Care Coordinators to help WII service members and their families develop and use a Comprehensive Recovery Plan and receive the non-medical support they need to create the lives they want.
- Restructuring the Disability Evaluation System for an equitable and efficient adjudication of benefits from the DoD and VA.
- Informing service members, veterans, and families through the National Resource Directory and eBenefits websites.
- Utilizing the Transition Assistance Program to give all service members the tools they need to succeed at home when they have completed their service to our nation.
Amputee Care
The high energy delivered by modern weapons can cause extensive soft-tissue injury and result in wound complications that require a longer time to heal. Battlefield wounds are initially left open because of the high risk of infection. A staged approach to amputation surgery is used to obtain wound closure and a residual limb that can provide the best function. At Walter Reed, we care for our wounded warriors until their acute wounds are healed and arrangements for rehabilitation are made at one of our state of the art military Amputee Centers.