NMSC Reserve Sailors Participating in Alabama Care 2012

By Navy Medicine Support Command Public Affairs

SELMA, Ala. (NNS) -- Nearly 80 enlisted and commissioned U.S. Navy medical professionals are participating in one of Navy Medicine's largest community outreach efforts in the Southeast as part of an Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) mission designed to provide assistance to under-serviced communities.

Alabama Care 2012, scheduled to continue through May 10, is part of the Department of Defense (DoD)-supported IRT effort, an initiative designed to improve military readiness while simultaneously providing quality services to communities throughout America.

The project is a multiservice mission comprised of active duty, Reserve, and National Guard members from Navy, Army and Air Force components.

Service members worked together to set up field-operated medical facilities in the three medically underserved and economically-depressed communities of Selma, Demopolis and Hayneville. Although the primary focus of military medical professionals participating in the exercise is to conduct deployment and readiness training, U.S. Armed Forces participants provided free medical, dental, pharmaceutical and ophthalmology services to the community, something Navy Medicine Support Command (NMSC) Reserve Component member and Alabama Care 2012 Navy Component Team Lead Cmdr. Patricia McCafferty said represents the fabric of what military medical professionals do around the world.

"Our Navy medical professionals are eager to provide the best care possible," she said. "We are also providing education through handouts, videos and posters. Each of the three sites has coordinated with local medical doctors, dentists and pharmacies, which allows the patient to continue to receive care once we depart."

The tri-service medical personnel are providing multiple services that include nursing evaluations, cholesterol screening, blood glucose monitoring and Hemoglobin A1C testing. Dental services include assessments, extractions, fillings and cleanings. Eye exams and spectacle manufacturing are offered, and a pharmacy is dispensing prescriptions once the patient has been seen and assessed by the medical team.

Alabama Care 2012 marks the first time some of the deploying Reservists are exposed to working with other military services, an effort she said will prove invaluable in the future for everyone involved.

"Flexibility and adaptability are key working in a joint environment," McCafferty said. "We have become a seamless group and have established friendships that will last a lifetime."

NMSC and its Reserve component are part of the Navy Medicine team, a global health care network of 63,000 Navy medical personnel around the world who provide high-quality health care to more than 1 million eligible beneficiaries. Navy Medicine personnel deploy with Sailors and Marines worldwide, providing critical mission support aboard ship, in the air, under the sea and on the battlefield.