By Master Sgt. Peter R. Sutherland
30th Medical Brigade
LIBREVILLE, Gabon – The 212th Combat Support Hospital sent a medical team to partner with Gabonese medical counterparts at the Hospital D’Instruction Des Armees in Libreville, Gabon during a Medical Readiness Training Exercise 16-4 from May 22 to June 17, 2016.
This MEDRETE focused on enhancing U.S. relationships with partnered Central-African nations by embedding medical teams and surgical personnel in host nation facilities to work “shoulder to shoulder” to develop clinical judgement in an under-resourced environment. Following this exercise was a two week field training exercise that incorporated the training objectives of Central Accord 16 with the training objectives from MEDRETE also in Gabon.
212th CSH supported 3rd Medical Command (Deployment Support) with a medical team comprised of a General Surgeon, Orthopedic Surgeon, Emergency Physician, Nurse Anesthetist, Operating Room Nurse, Emergency Room Nurse, Critical-Care Nurse and Pharmaceutical Technician.
Over the course of the exercise, 212th CSH medical team engaged the entire Gabonese hospital staff and patient population to treat hundreds of patients and conducted over 10 surgeries using only host nation resources.
The daily interaction with staff and patients developed a stronger bond between providers, staff and the local population. Best practices were shared from both the Gabonese hospital staff and the 212th CSH medical team to further clinical development.
MEDRETE was historically used as an Army Medical Command tool to train specialty teams in skills or procedures required in order to certify credentials and licenses. MEDRETEs today focus on training clinical decision making in alternatively resource constrained settings with partner nations in order to simulate expeditionary operations.