Twenty-five staff from Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command (NMRTC) Jacksonville (co-located with Naval Hospital Jacksonville) are deploying aboard the U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20). Comfort is on a five-month mission to South America, Central America, and the Caribbean, starting in mid-June.

“We're proud to answer the call,” said Capt. Matthew Case, NMRTC Jacksonville commanding officer and NH Jacksonville commander.  “We provide key-enabler staff, to help USNS Comfort set sail and meet the mission. At the same time, we’re supporting 26 expeditionary medical platforms and our operational and shore units throughout the area.”

Staff deploying from NMRTC Jacksonville and NH Jacksonville include clinical and non-clinical staff: physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, a physical therapist, a dietician, a nurse case manager, an environmental health officer, hospital corpsmen, culinary specialists, information systems technicians, a logistics specialist, a personnel specialist, and a yeoman.

USNS Comfort medical teams will pull in to Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Panama, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago for working port visits.

The mission plans to embark medical professionals from partner nations to join in the effort to provide medical care to patients.

This marks the seventh hospital ship deployment to the region since 2007. The deployment reflects the United States’ enduring promise of friendship, partnership and solidarity with the Americas.

Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command Jacksonville (co-located with Naval Hospital Jacksonville) ensures warfighters’ medical readiness to deploy and clinicians’ readiness to save lives. NH Jacksonville and NMRTC Jacksonville deliver quality health care, in an integrated system of readiness and health. NH Jacksonville includes five branch health clinics across Florida and Georgia. It serves 163,000 active-duty and retired sailors, Marines, soldiers, airmen, guardsmen, and their families, including about 83,000 patients who are enrolled with a primary care manager. To find out more, visit www.med.navy.mil/sites/navalhospitaljax.

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