Building a War Ready Surgical Technologist through Local Military-Civilian Partnership

Area of Science:

• Medical Readiness
• Surgical Technology
• Military Health Systems

Background:

• Air Force Surgical Technologists (4N1) require specialized skills for expeditionary surgical teams.
• The Comprehensive Medical Readiness Program (CMRP) aims to maintain these war-relevant skills.
• Declining surgical case volume at Keesler Medical Center (KMC) necessitated a solution to ensure 4N1 readiness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the impact of a military-civilian partnership on CMRP case volume and diversity.
• To provide a data-driven approach to address the shortfall in surgical training cases for 4N1 personnel.
• To establish a model for improving readiness in military surgical teams.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of operating room case logs from KMC and Singing River Health System (SR) in 2025.
• Comparison of daily case volumes for CMRP-preferred procedures between the two institutions.
• Statistical analysis including Wilcoxon signed-rank test, paired t-test, and chi-squared test to assess differences.

Main Results:

• SR generated significantly more CMRP cases (1,944) than KMC (271) over the study period.
• Significant differences in case distribution were observed, with KMC having zero Cardiothoracic and Neurosurgery cases, while SR had substantial volume in these and Vascular categories.
• The partnership resulted in a broader and more numerous set of CMRP cases.

Conclusions:

• Military-civilian partnerships effectively broaden and increase CMRP cases, crucial for sustaining 4N1 war-relevant skills.
• This collaborative model is scalable and can be adopted by other military healthcare facilities.
• Partnerships are vital for ensuring the readiness of expeditionary surgical teams.