Wartime Medical Care: Personnel Requirements Still Not Resolved.
Abstract
The Military health Services System (MHss), with an annual cost of over $15 billion, has the dual mission of providing medical care to the military forces during war or conflict and to military dependents and retirees. The MHSS consists of over 90 deployable combat hospitals that are solely devoted to the wartime mission. In addition, over 600 medical treatment facilities, such as medical centers, community hospitals, and clinics, are available worldwide to care for wartime casualties, but also provide peacetime care to active duty dependents and retirees. The system employs over 184,000 military personnel and civilians with an additional 91,000 medical personnel in the National Guard and Selected Reserves. In the post-Cold War era, personnel downsizing and constrained budgets focused attention on DOD'S need to determine the appropriate size and mix of its medical force. In 1991, the Congress required DOD to reassess its medical personnel requirements based on a post-Cold War scenario. Specifically, section 733 of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal Years 1992 and 1993 (P. L. 102-190, December 5,1991) required, among other things, that DOD determine the size and composition of the military medical system needed to support U.S. forces during a war or other conflict and identify ways of improving the cost-effectiveness of medical care delivered during peacetime.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1996
- Accession Number
- ADA310629
Entities
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office