Leading AMC: Fairchild dramatically improves its medical readiness

Published April 14, 2011
By Scott King
92nd Air Refueling Wing

FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- Since October, Fairchild has steadily been climbing the ranks in Air Mobility Command when it comes to medical mobility readiness - reaching number one in AMC - with no plans of looking back.

They achieved this through the Preventive Health Assessment and Individual Medical Readiness program, an Air Force-wide database used to track each base's compliance with medical readiness requirements.

"We played the 'Quarterback role' through this process, but the wing team won the game," said Lt. Col. Walter "SPARKY" Matthews, 92nd Aerospace Medicine Squadron commander. "The most important thing we do here is ensure our personnel are medically ready to go, at a moments notice, to support contingency or humanitarian efforts world-wide."

In order for Fairchild personnel to deploy, they need to be "green" across the board in the PIMR. Meaning they need to be current on their annual preventive health assessment, dental assessment, lab exams, immunizations and have gas mask inserts if they wear glasses.

"We could not have achieved this quest without support from the entire base," Colonel Matthews said. "The wing commander set the tone making this program a top priority, which naturally flowed to the group and squadron commanders to the front-line supervisors - it really has been a team effort."

In September 2010, the Fairchild PIMR rate was 72 percent: this was last out of 12 bases in AMC. Now, the base is at 83 percent and first in the command.

"In addition to leadership support, we now send weekly snapshots to all squadron commanders, unit deployment managers and unit health monitors showing, by name, the medical status of all their personnel," said Master Sgt. Kevin Williams, 92nd Aerospace Medicine Squadron public health flight NCO in charge. "This gives them increased awareness and a constant reminder to keep on top of their folks."

Evidence of the much-improved program was recently revealed during a few short-notice taskings. More than 100 personnel have deployed in past weeks, and not a single person was unable to go because of a non-current PIMR item.

"We had extremely smooth medical outprocessing lines," Sergeant Williams said. "Normally we have 10 to 15 percent of any given group who have to have a PHA or something else done on the spot while on the deployment line - these past few groups we've had zero."

Even though the program is running extremely well, the medical group is still improving the process.

"We are going to have our newest Airman, while they are attending the First Term Airman Center come through for 'one stop shopping' for their PIMR requirements," Colonel Matthews said. "We are not yet completely satisfied with the program - we want to reach a point where our Airmen, instead of sitting in a dental chair or on an exam table just before a deployment - they are spending their last hours with their families and loved ones."

The medical group and squadron commander's efforts have caught the eye of base leadership.

"They have really come a long way in a short time with this program," said Col. Paul Guemmer, 92nd Air Refueling Wing commander. "Readiness is key to our Fairchild warfighters' mission. "We're currently supporting multiple contingencies across the globe - without being mobility-ready - we could not provide the 'fuel to the fight' on a continuing basis."

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