Courtesy Photo | Rear Adm. Rick Freedman, acting U.S. Navy surgeon general and chief, U.S. Navy Bureau...... read more read more
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Navy Medicine reaffirmed its long-term strategic partnership with Cook County Health (CCH) to sustain the skills of expeditionary medicine (EXMED) teams and clinical care until 2031during a signing ceremony to extend its program at the Cook County Health Professional Building, April 28.
The Navy and Cook County Health first began their partnership in 2013 when naval surgeons from Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago began coming to Stroger Hospital – the first comprehensive trauma center in the country – to train in trauma care. The first Navy corpsman trauma training program began at Stroger Hospital in 2017. In the years since, Navy officers and enlisted medical professionals have continued to do rotations through the hospital’s trauma unit.
“This partnership has empowered our military trauma teams – specifically our seven-person expeditionary resuscitative surgical systems – with world-class training that has, almost certainly, saved lives,” said Rear Adm. Rick Freedman, acting U.S. Navy surgeon general and chief, U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. “This success is a direct testament to the vision and hard work of everyone involved.”
Since 2022, this critical military-civilian partnership (MCP) with CCH and its hospital systems has provided U.S. Navy medical teams an opportunity to operate at the leading edge of medicine with high trauma case volume, acuity, and complexity. The trauma unit at Stroger Hospital has more than 4,000 activations annually. Approximately 25 percent of those cases include penetrating trauma, most commonly gun or knife injuries.
“We are proud to reaffirm our partnership with the U.S. Navy. Through this collaboration, we are elevating the practice of trauma care and ensuring that patients, both here at home and abroad, benefit from the highest level of clinical excellence,” stated Dr. Erik Mikaitis, the chief executive officer of CCH.
The MCP was developed with the intent of refreshing and sustaining the critical knowledge, skills, and abilities of EXMED teams and to maintain readiness to accomplish rapid damage control resuscitation and damage control surgery for critically ill and injured patients in forward-deployed austere locations.
“I want to thank the entire Cook County Health team for your enthusiastic support and incredible hospitality,” concluded Freedman. “Your dedication to providing a world-class experience to our team members and to furthering Navy Medicine’s goal of ensuring the highest readiness of our medical forces does not go unnoticed, and we look forward to our continued collaboration.”
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| Date Taken: | 04.28.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 04.28.2026 15:41 |
| Story ID: | 563812 |
| Location: | CHICAGO, US |
| Web Views: | 23 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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