Lessons from Medical Treatment of Army Reserve Units during Annual Training

Abstract

During annual training, a reserve hospital unit staffed a clinic, providing sick-call for its own members and secondary care for about 3,000 National Guard soldiers. Reservists reporting for sick call were treated predominantly for respiratory infection, while the Guard members complained most frequently of field-related injuries. Quality assurance (QA) was done by the authors to evaluate handling of sick call over the 2 weeks, and few problems emerged upon review of the clinic records. Suggestions for future years include establishing standard terminology for recording chief complaint and discharge disposition, and the use of treatment guidelines for training and QA purposes.