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National Guard doctors and nurses are assigned to Army hospitals

to supplement hospital staffing.   Doctors and nurses in the

active units are assigned to Army hospitals during peacetime.


As a result of this lack of training with the unit, according to

the Army Central Command Surgeon, doctors and nurses were

unfamiliar with the equipment and supplies in the field

hospitals, known as Deployable Medical Systems (DEPMEDS).   In

many cases, doctors and nurses preferred to use equipment and

supplies that they were more familiar with rather than the

equipment and supplies that were part of the DEPMEDS.   The Army

agreed to provide t~e equip~nt and supplies that met the

individual physicians' preferences.


Aiother L~ct of tbis lack ~~ training was that many of the

~~sici~ did not gnderstand      he missions of the units they were

~~ join.   A physician's peacetime mission is to provide care at a

`-cLical ~ctivity or center to active duty personnel, their

~endents, and retirees.     In meeting that mission, the physician

~vides comprehensive treatment until the patient is discharged

f~m the hospital.    Typically, physicians joining forward

deployed units did not understand that their role was to

stabilize the patient so that the patient could be evacuated to

the rear where more intensive care could be provided.   The Army

Central Command Surgeon stated that this misunderstanding had the

greatest impact on Mobile Army Surgical Hospital and Combat


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