title: Staying at the Cutting Edge: Partnership With a Level 1 Trauma Center Improves Clinical Currency and Wartime Readiness for Military Surgeons.
abstract: Surgical currency is a critical component of medical corps readiness. We report a review of surgeons embedded into a civilian institution and analyze whether this improves surgical currency and wartime readiness.
  
  
  
  Patient management and operative volume were acquired from four surgeons embedded at a civilian institution and compared to operative case loads of surgeons based at a military treatment facility (MTF).
  
  
  
  The surgeons embedded in the civilian institution had a mean of 49.3 cases compared to a mean of 8.3 cases for surgeons at the MTF over this 6-month period. In addition, the embedded surgeons obtained 44.4 to 94.7% of these cases during their civilian experience as opposed to cases done at the MTF. The cases performed by the embedded orthopedic surgeon (n = 247) was over 20 times the mean number of cases (mean = 12) performed at the MTF. Over a 6-month period, the trauma surgeon and general surgeon each evaluated 150 and 170 new trauma patients, respectively. In addition, the trauma/critical care surgeon cared for 250 critical care patients over this same 6-month period.
  
  
  
  This study demonstrates that embedding surgeons into a civilian institution allows them to maintain skill sets critical for currency and wartime readiness.
authors.affiliation: 99th Medical Group, Mike O'Callaghan Federal Medical Center, 4700 North Las Vegas Boulevard, Nellis Air Force Base, NV 89191.
authors.forename: Vilas
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Saldanha
authors.affiliation: 959th Medical Group, San Antonio Military Medical Center, Joint Base San Antonio, 2080 Wilson Road, San Antonio, TX 78234.
authors.forename: Fia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.affiliation: 99th Medical Group, Mike O'Callaghan Federal Medical Center, 4700 North Las Vegas Boulevard, Nellis Air Force Base, NV 89191.
authors.forename: Jeffrey D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.affiliation: 99th Medical Group, Mike O'Callaghan Federal Medical Center, 4700 North Las Vegas Boulevard, Nellis Air Force Base, NV 89191.
authors.forename: Nichole K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Ingalls
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000193:education* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000072161:Orthopedic Surgeons / Q000193:education / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010559:Personnel Management / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods; D066231:Surgeons / Q000193:education* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014193:Trauma Centers / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D014194:Traumatology / Q000193:education