NNMC Provides Continuum of Care to Wounded Warriors

BETHESDA, Md. (NNS) -- While November 2010 is Wounded Warrior Month, National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) staff members provide health care to Wounded Warriors, facilitating their needs and accomodating their families, year round.

Wounded Warriors receive this year-round support at NMMC's inpatient warrior and family liaison offices (IWFLOs) and Marine Corps liaison offices (MCLOs).

The NNMC IWFLO provides services to Wounded Warriors 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year, said Lt. Cmdr. Tod Hazlett, IWFLO officer.

Chief Hospital Corpsman Brian O'Keefe, assistant IWFLO officer, added that NNMC's IWFLO personnel act as NNMC's concierge service for Wounded Warriors, meeting every need of the Wounded Warriors and their families.

"[We] inject ourselves into the family so that they feel comfortable telling us their needs, whether it be financial, medical or emotional," said Hazlett. "Our job is to win the family's trust so that we can provide for their needs. That trust piece is huge."

The MCLO office also works towards the same end to support wounded Marines. In addition to ensuring every Marine who comes through the hospital receives the best care and services as possible, MCLO staff members provide vital resources to injured Marines and their families.

These staff members have a responsibility to keep the Marines' parent command updated on his/her status, make sure administrative duties are in order and provide a chain of command for the injured Marine at NNMC to help ensure he/she has support.

"It's an honor to work here," said Sgt. James Toland, operations chief for MCLO. "I've been overseas and now to be on the other end of combat, it's great to be on this end of it and help these Marines and their families. I tell [the staff members in the MCLO], treat these families as you would want your mom or your dad or your wife or your brother or your sister treated."

The nine-person IWFLO assists an average of about 43 Wounded Warriors every day, said O'Keefe.

Moreover, the IWFLO staff facilitates almost 200 off-site events and more than 300 visits per year.

In the coming months, the NNMC IWFLO expects more than 100 requests for Wounded Warriors to attend holiday-related events, said Hazlett. Wounded Warrior Month is a time to recognize the clinicians, nurses and corpsmen, said O'Keefe. Medical innovation has had something to do with survivability of service members injured in Iraq and Afghanistan reaching 95 percent, but most of the credit goes to the medical providers.

Aside from the IWFLO and MCLO offices, Navy medicine offers several programs to ensure the continuum of care — from the moment a Sailor or Marine is injured, to recovery, to rehabilitation and reintegration.

Some of these programs are listed below:

- National Intrepid Center of Excellence will more effectively research, diagnose and treat traumatic brain injuries and post traumatic stress for Wounded Warriors.

- The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery Wounded Warrior Regiment Medical Review Teams coordinate with battalion surgeons, deployed units and military treatment facilities in advance of the return of a unit to set up anticipated medical appointments, ensuring a majority of medical needs are assessed prior to demobilization.

- Operational stress control and readiness teams are also helping to build resilience and decrease stigmas associated with seeking psychological health care.

- Seventeen deployment health centers serve as non-stigmatizing portals of entry in high fleet and Marine Corps concentration areas and augment primary care service offered at military treatment facilities.

- Medical Homeport Initiative provides a more comprehensive, team-based model of health care delivery. This new model will drive out variability by implementing standards for all aspects of primary care services.

- Project Families Over Coming Under Stress is a family-centered resiliency training program based on evidence-based research interventions to enhance understanding, psychological health, and developmental outcomes for highly stressed children and families.

"Patient and family-centered care is Navy medicine's core concept of care, which recognizes the vital importance of the family, military culture, and the chain of command in supporting our wounded warriors," said Navy Surgeon General Vice Adm. Adam Robinson Jr. "This is a long-term commitment. We will be caring for our wounded warriors for the better part of this century, well beyond our military presence in Iraq or Afghanistan."

Whether physically being injured, seeing a battle buddy injured or experiencing the stressors of war, health care has to tackle the entire spectrum, O'Keefe said.

For more information about Wounded Warrior care and available services at NNMC, call the IWFLO at 301-319-6805 or the MCLO at 301-295-6111.

For more news from National Naval Medical Center, visit www.navy.mil/local/nnmc/.