I received my introduction to the MC4 system while deployed to Al Asad, Iraq, with the 1-133 Infantry in 2006. A container filled with MC4 equipment arrived one day and we were required to set it up on our own.
Our location was deemed too dangerous for MC4 support personnel to convoy to and install the equipment. Prior to our deployment, we had not received training to set up or use the system.
I didn’t think it was right that medical personnel, Army Reserve and National Guard Soldiers, did not receive the proper training before deploying to theater. You’re already in a crazy environment and now you have to figure out this new computer system to chart patient notes.
During that deployment, I thought about central hubs where professional officer filler system (PROFIS) providers pass through before leaving to fulfill their 90 day rotations.
Training on MC4 did not take place at the CONUS Replacement Center (CRC), Fort Benning, Ga. There, deploying Soldiers receive basic combat training, such as weapons training and how to find landmines, but they do not learn how to use the critical piece of equipment used to fulfill the medical requirements on the battlefield. This continued even after the MC4 system was deemed to be mandatory use in theater for all deployed providers.
When I returned from Iraq, I was assigned to the Army Medical Department (AMEDD) Professional Management Command (APMC) at Fort Gillem, Ga., and helped to prep PROFIS personnel for deployment. I realized that this would be a great environment to offer MC4 training.
MC4 personnel led the first four-hour training class in August during the APMC Soldier Readiness Process. Later this year, I’ll take over the instruction of classes. As a physician that used the system on the battlefield, I can give the providers a good view of what to expect and how the system will help them.
I absolutely love the digital system and it is a significant improvement over paper records. I deployed to Bagram, Afghanistan, from 2004 to 2005 before MC4 was installed. We had patients arrive at the hospital with illegible paperwork, or none at all. Medics did the best they could to document their care. They wrote notes on Soldiers’ shirts and foreheads, as well as small scraps of paper before sending them on to the nearest facility for the next phase of care.
With the MC4 system, you don’t have to rely on bits of information or try to piece together previous treatments. We now have a clear concept of what took place through every level of care—starting with the point of injury and on for additional treatment in CONUS.
It is very important to have complete and legible documentation of a Soldier’s injuries from the initial treatment performed by the medics and the forward surgical teams. This information allows the physicians at the combat support hospitals, as well as the fixed hospital facilities in Germany and in CONUS, to proceed with patient care in the best manner possible and provide better medical outcomes for the Soldiers.
When wounded warriors need to be evacuated to Germany, providers can look in the Theater Medical Data
Store (TMDS) and see the injuries and initial care administered. Throughout the continuum of care, clinicians do not have to rely on another person’s handwriting. You do not have to worry about a piece of paper getting lost while a Service member is in transit to another facility. The notes are in the system and easy to read.
The facility that receives the wounded warrior can review the notes before the injured arrives. This allows everyone involved in the patient’s care to be familiar with, and have a better understanding of, the injuries and required care.
Another important aspect of the MC4 system is that injuries and epidemics can be tracked with the Joint Medical Workstation (JMeWS). Providers are no longer blinded by what they may think is only occurring at their location. With Agent Orange from Vietnam and Gulf War Syndrome from Desert Storm, a lot of injuries and exposures occurred. Due to a lack of communication, providers in one location were not aware that similar cases occurred in other locations.
Proper documentation on the ground allows command and control medical deployment support units, such as 3rd MDSC, to spot and track possible epidemics and similar disease processes occurring in different locations of theater.
Ltc. Jennifer Marrast Host, Surgeon, 3rd Medical Deployment Support Command, Fort Gillem, Ga.