Maintaining the records and medical readiness for more than 2,000 Sailors is no easy task, but the Medical Department aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) went above and beyond the call of duty in their annual Individual Medical Readiness Inspection (IMRI) to score in the highest bracket possible.

“The inspection is about the medical readiness of the crew being up-to-date,” said Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman Miguel Medina, the departmental leading chief petty officer of George Washington’s Medical Department.

The inspection team from Commander, Naval Air Forces Atlantic (CNAL) evaluated a sample group of medical records in order to determine how up-to-date the forms were and the accuracy of the information contained within each of them.

“They take 120 random records from our crew list and spot check each and every one of them,” said Medina. “It’s an all hands event where all the corpsman work hard to prepare for the inspection.”

Medina said preparation for the inspection takes place every day.

“Whenever we do a [birth month recall], a [periodic health assessment], immunizations, blood tests, anything, we have to work to make sure the records and computer systems are up-to-date,” said Medina. “What CNAL usually does, and this is ship-wide, is they take a sample from each department and make sure that there are enough medically-ready Sailors to deploy at a moment’s notice. We have to be ready to deploy at all times, and this inspection checks to make sure that our crew is healthy enough to do so.”

Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Chevoirye Wade said that they did well overall on the entire inspection.

“We did well on the IMRI,” said Wade. “We scored a 91 percent on the overall inspection, which means we met or exceeded expectations is all categories. The few hits we did get were mostly small administrative things, such as some of the forms not being current, particularly on the records of Sailors who have been in long enough for several version of forms to have been released.”

The inspection includes six elements, which are individual medical equipment, like eyeglasses and EpiPens; immunizations; blood work; dental readiness; deployment-limiting conditions, like diabetes and pregnancy; and the periodic health assessment.

“One of the CNAL force master chiefs talked to everyone E-5 and below, and it meant a lot to get that pat on the back from someone who’s been there and done that,” said Wade. “It was trying, but it was rewarding.  All those long nights and all that hard work finally working out.”

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