Airmen gain greater understanding of international medevac

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Richard Williams
  • 455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan (AFNS) --  U.S. and German aeromedical evacuation units met to gain insight, share ideas and coordinate joint evacuation efforts April 24 through 26 at International Security Assistance Force Regional Command North's Camp Marmal, Afghanistan.

Lt. Col. Michael Gainer, the 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight commander, and other U.S. aeromedical experts used the three-day visit with their German counterparts to exchange ideas on ways to improve the evacuation process in a coalition environment.

"We are trying to establish a smoother flow of communication between all of the (aeromedical evacuation) agencies, and interoperability with our equipment and airframes," Colonel Gainer said. "We want to identify what equipment does not work well together and try to develop an understanding of how we can work together to improve the process."

Although the medical evacuation systems of the coalition countries are not very different, there are varying medical policies and philosophies between forces and a common ground must be reached to ensure the best, most timely medical care is given to patients, said German Col. Thomas Stahl, German Medical Task Force, Afghanistan, commander, and medical advisor to the Regional Command North commander.

"We are potentially going from a few hundred to a few thousand U.S. forces in the (Regional Command) North region in the next few months," Colonel Gainer said. "With this growth, the potential for medical and casualty evacuation could rise and we want to ensure the system is in place and ready to go if needed."

Although the German aeromedical evacuation is outstanding, their German C-160 aeromedical evacuation aircraft has a smaller capacity for transporting patients than that of the U.S. aircraft, which means in the event of a mass transport situation, the system could become overwhelmed with patients, Colonel Gainer said. 

The type of power used to operate equipment, different medications and dosage are all issues Colonel Stahl said he sees as a challenge to the combined medical evacuation effort. Even the way patients are transported from the medical facility to the aircraft can present a challenge. 

"Equipment standardization is a key component to creating a fluid patient transfer process where patients can go from aircraft to aircraft and hospital to hospital without compromising the level of care," said German Chief Master Sgt. Klaus Zuaihasch, a medical crew chief. "We are not able to give our litters to the Americans because they have (different) litters than the Germans, so when we hand over intensive care patients, there is added stress on the patients."

Meetings between coalition medical teams are great because they give each members of each country a chance to see and learn about equipment the other uses and gives both sides a chance to gain a better understanding of the other processes its patients, he said.

Sometimes the process has to be coordinated through a number of channels before the mission actually leaves the ground, Colonel Gainer said. Sometimes communication between all agencies involved in the patient transfer process can be a challenge.

"They work on a different telephone system than we do," Colonel Gainer said. "We are working to get some of our systems to their areas to help with information flow but it is going to take some time and the access will be limited. Until these systems are in place it is going to take a greater effort to ensure everyone knows the plan for patient movement so everyone is ready and there are no delays."

He said the care at the German medical facility is, "top notch western medicine at its finest." 

"I expected a great visit, but it was clear to me that we were both interested in providing the best care for patients, whether they are coalition or U.S.," Colonel Gainer said. "We are very excited about the opportunity to work together and I think both countries will benefit from the strong relationship we are developing."