Fort Hood and surrounding community case managers gathered for an opportunity to network, complete training and become familiar with community resources at the 2nd annual Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center Case Management Conference Feb. 20 at the Fort Hood Mission Training Complex.
Nearly 200 participants attended and 60 resource community partners hosted tables during the conference’s networking lunch in the exhibit hall.
CRDAMC has one case manager in each of its primary care clinics, including outpatient behavioral health and specialty care, and two or more in its Family Medicine Readiness Clinic and Soldier Recovery Unit.
“The role of our case managers is to care for the highest complex patients,” said Charles Sondgeroth, chief case management division. “When a patient is admitted either to the hospital or the network with polytrauma or those kinds of things, the case manager manages care from the incident, through inpatient or outpatient rehab, and back to primary care and optimal health.”
Conference attendees gained specific insight from guest speakers who provided education on topics like professional ethics, clinical objectives, sleep issues, therapies and coping with chronic pain.
Leaders and organizers praised the coordinators of the event. Angela Powell-Lewis, registered nurse and case manager, Family Medicine Readiness Clinic and lead coordinator received a commander’s coin for organizing the event, but she quickly recognized other members of the committee, like Juvy Bergeron, registered nurse and case manager SRU, CRDAMC, for registering the resource community partner vendors for the conference.
The committee had to adjust the date of the conference, originally planned for October 2025 as a culminating capstone to National Case Management Week due to the government shutdown.
“All of us involved put in our time and effort and worked really hard to help each other out and it was great teamwork overall,” said Bergeron, about organizing the event. “With the right people and support from the CRDAMC leadership we were able to make it happen.”
The network partners provided expertise and information that their organizations offer to equip the case managers with added resources to direct patients to the right resource.
“At CRDAMC, our case managers serve as the indispensable hub in this interconnected ecosystem. They bridge internal military resources with external civilian providers and vendors, closing care gaps, streamlining referrals and weaving community expertise into truly personalized care plans,” said Cahill. “The extraordinary turnout from local partners today not only reflects the depth of these collaborative bonds but also shows how events like this empower our case managers to forge even stronger alliances—ultimately elevating continuity of care and driving better long-term health outcomes and mission readiness.”
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