Trauma Surgeons Urge Action to Maintain Military Surgery Readiness

The ACS’s principles and guidance were recently highlighted by military surgeons in a freely available article published in RealClear Defense.

In “Burn the Ships: A Call for Decisive Transformation in Military Medical Readiness,” authors John M. Ruggero, DO, FACS, and Jeremy W. Cannon, MD, FACS, a member of the ACS Committee on Trauma (COT)—both trauma surgeons who served combat tours in recent conflicts—describe the current struggles of the US Military Health System to provide routine care for beneficiaries and maintain wartime trauma readiness.

Maintaining trauma readiness means combating the “Walker dip,” a decline in readiness that occurs during periods of peace.

They argue that “to retain our strategic edge in this no-fail mission, combat medical readiness cannot remain a secondary byproduct of routine, low-acuity healthcare delivery,” especially as the next major peer conflicts are projected to produce mass casualties. However, the MHS is not currently equipped to meet these demands.

To meet this critical need for military trauma readiness, Drs. Ruggero and Cannon provide a multifaceted solution, which includes references to ACS policy recommendations and quality verification programs.

The first is to “aggressively embed active-duty critical wartime specialties into America’s busiest civilian trauma systems”—the defining goal of MISSION ZERO, which provides funding for these military-civilian partnerships. The ACS has long supported the legislation that introduced MISSION ZERO and regularly advocates for full funding of the program.

The second recommendation is that “a select number of strategically designated flagship military treatment facilities should be fully resourced as national trauma readiness hubs.” Currently, only one MHS facility is designated as a COT-verified Level 1 trauma center. The authors suggest that additional sites “must grow into their full potential by managing civilian trauma in high volumes.”

Drs. Ruggero and Cannon also recommend rebuilding the reserve military trauma workforce, similar to how the ACS aided in mobilizing a substantial number of physicians during World War I. For more information, read “How the ACS Mobilized American Surgery for WWI—and Why It Matters Today” in this month’s issue of the ACS Bulletin.