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Army Reserve Medical Readiness

University of Saint Mary

Tameca Dale

10 April 2016
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Reserve Medical Readiness Issues

Any Active Duty Registered Nurse that is assigned to an Army Reserve unit has a duty to

make sure that Reserve Soldiers are ready to go into the fight. The role of the Reserves is to be

mission capable at all times and be in support of the Active Army. A portion of this readiness

requires that all reserve soldiers are up-to-date on their medical status. These are the required

medical components that are mandated to be updated annually: Dental, Vision, and your Physical

Health Assessment (PHA). This topic of Medical Readiness is important because it is key to

every reserve soldier no matter what the rank. There is a nation-wide deficiency in readiness and

this has become top priority to every commander from the division to the company level.

Medical Readiness is the heartbeat of the Army Reserves and if the appropriate steps are taken to

be ready, then the force will be strengthened plus it lowers the cost on the government.

The issue that is continuously occurring every year within the reserves is that soldiers are

not getting their medical assessments completed. Reserve Component (RC) members are not

achieving overall readiness goals but have made progress in many areas. The analysis found that

the Department of Defense (DoD) goal of having 75 percent of members fully medically ready is

not being met by either the active component (AC) or the RC, although great progress has been

made (Brauner, Jackson, & Gayton, 2012). If reserve soldiers are not meeting the standards that

requires them to be medically ready at all times, then that lowers our fighting force. Being ready

to go out to the fight is the whole point of being a soldier, and when we arent prepared, we are

doing our fellow brothers a disservice.

Data Needed

The Army Reserves uses a company called Logistics Health Incorporated (LHI) that

creates medical and dental appointments when soldiers need them. Soldiers review their stats on
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the Medical Protection System (MEDPROS) to find out what their deficiencies are currently and

then they call LHI to make an appointment. Commanders need the data of how many

appointments and no-shows are created by soldiers, as well as who is due for their annual exams.

To get this data it will come from the LHI Company and MEDPROS in a spreadsheet form.

MEDPROS will show a snapshot of all the soldiers medical data within a particular unit.

Confirming the cost of no-shows will be key to the commander, as he will have to answer

to his higher command if needless monies are spent and how those can be rectified. Soldiers that

make appointments and fail to appear without cancelling, cost the government money. The

government still has to pay the provider whether the soldier shows or not, therefore no-shows

should not be happening. One article shared, No-Shows cost the U.S. health-care system more

than $150 billion a year (Toland, 2013). If we are able to present a system that keeps soldiers

well informed about current medical data, then this may lower cost and in-turn, increase Army

Reserve Readiness.

Stakeholders

In 2012, the Army's individual medical readiness stood at just 85 percent while the Guard

and Reserve deploy-ability level is even lower at 70 percent, according to senior Army officials.

Of those Soldiers unable to deploy, a growing number were unable to do so for medical reasons

(Carabajal, 2012). The goal of medical readiness is to increase the number of soldiers that are

medically ready to deploy at a moments notice. Stakeholders that would be affected from a

medical readiness project would not only be our soldiers, but every human being in this great

nation. The general focus is to make sure soldiers are at a green status within their MEDPROS.

Platoon leaders, commanders, and even political leaders such as congress and our

president would be beneficiaries to this project. The more soldiers that have been cleared
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medically will be able to be used in the fighting force. Soldiers that sign up to join the reserves

are taught early on that readiness is a key factor of being a successful soldier. From the lowest

enlisted soldier to the highest ranking officer, we are all required to be medically ready.

Proposal

The Army Reserves offers a couple of ways to handle getting soldiers medically ready.

LHI allows individual soldiers to call their company and schedule an appointment with a

contracted health care provider that is within 50 miles of the soldiers location. This gives

soldiers autonomy to make appointments around their busy schedules. In return, soldiers are

reimbursed for their time by submitting pay vouchers to their unit administrator that allows them

to be paid for 4 hours. On the other hand, the best idea is for the unit to set up mass events that

target the most soldiers in one consolidated area at one time. Mass-medical events offer unit

commanders the opportunity to improve their units' medical readiness quickly and efficiently

plus consolidation of other local Army Reserve units will free-up LHI personnel to participate in

unit-level events (Morris, 2015).

To coordinate mass events requires a hands on effort from each individual soldiers

leadership. Leaders should review each of their soldiers current medical status to evaluate who

is due for their annual assessments prior to the initiation of the mass event. Unit commanders are

responsible for monitoring their Soldiers Individual Medical Readiness (IMR) and ensuring

compliance with all the combined elements of medical readiness. The better the unit can monitor

and resolve medical discrepancies in MEDPROS, the sooner Soldiers can resolve their problems

and the less time theyll spend in Soldier Readiness Processing (SRP) and mobilization

processing (OTSG, 2012, p. 10).

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If the mass event project is successful, then the unit commander will see an increase in

the number of medically ready soldiers. Therefore, surpassing the goal of 75 percent, but

reaching 85 percent and higher of soldiers that are ready to go on the battle field. This will not

be a one-time effort, but a continued effort that is performed at least annually by all leaders.

Remember the goal of medical readiness is to coordinate and influence mobilization and pre-

deployment medical readiness to ensure all of our forces, regardless of component, are optimally

prepared to perform their warfighting mission (Frady, 2013).

Accountability

What has been found is that, a project such as this will never work until every soldier

does his part and holds himself accountable. Soldiers depend heavily on others telling them what

to do, but medical readiness is a personal responsibility. Any soldier that wants to further their

career towards retirement must understand that being medically ready is a day-to-day battle.

Eating healthy, exercising, and attending appointments are all personal objectives that can be met

by each individual soldier. This requires that leaders from the highest level are instilling the

importance of readiness into their soldiers. Leaders from all levels can get feedback from their

soldiers why readiness is or is not important to them. This could be a lack of education and

knowledge that has not been shared with soldiers for the reason they are rebelling and not doing

what is right. As stated before, every person that puts on the green suit has a duty and

accountability that requires them to be ready to go out in the fight.

Conclusion

To summarize, every Army Reserve Soldier has an obligation to be medically ready at

any time to go and support this great country. The Army is a strong fighting force that requires

its men and women to be ready to go at a moments notice. This means that medical readiness is
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no longer an idea or suggestion that is put on the backer burner but is at the forefront of every

soldiers mind. Leaders need to be personally involved with their soldiers to make sure they are

adhering to medical readiness rules and regulations. Overall, having a strong prepared Army

Reserve Component may be the key that helps win the war.
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References

Brauner, M. K., Jackson, T., & Gayton, E. K. (2012). Medical readiness of the reserve

component. Retrieved from

http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2012/RAND_MG1105.pdf

Carabajal, S. (2012). Army medicine focuses on medical readiness. Retrieved from

http://www.army.mil/article/71724/Army_Medicine_focuses_on_medical_readiness/

Frady, K. (2013). Army medicine realigns medical readiness divisions. Retrieved from

http://www.army.mil/article/99493/

Morris, S. (2015). Army reserve command boosts throughout 13-state region. Retrieved from

http://www.army.mil/article/160338/Army_Reserve_command_boosts_medical_readines

s_throughout_13_state_region/

Office of the Surgeon General. (2012). Medical readiness leader guide. Retrieved from

http://www.kansastag.gov/AdvHTML_Upload/files/Medical%20Readiness%20Leader

%20Guide%20September%2018%202012(1).pdf

Toland, B. (2013). No-shows cost health care system billions. Retrieved from

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/businessnews/2013/02/24/No-shows-cost-health-

care-system-billions/stories/201302240381