Healthcare - Medical Facilities

• AMEDD — Army Medical Department.  All Army healthcare people in the world belong to the AMEDD.  The Army surgeon general, a lieutenant general, sets policies for the entire AMEDD.  "Dual-hatted" as U.S. Army Medical Command commander, he also commands most AMEDD commands, agencies and fixed hospitals.


• Army Community Hospital — ACHs offer more complex, resource-intensive secondary care (e.g., inpatient care, surgery under general anesthesia) at major posts.  Usually 50 to 150 beds.  Also give primary care at outpatient clinics inside and outside the hospital, e.g., troop clinics and outlying clinics at small posts.  A facility that offers all ACH services except inpatient care is called an Army Health Center.


• Clinic — Outpatient facility offering primary care or simple specialty care, i.e., routine exams, tests and treatments.  Supervised by a MEDCEN, MEDDAC or DENTAC.  May be a stand-alone site (e.g., an Army Health Clinic) or part of a major health facility (Family practice clinic, pediatric clinic, etc., within a hospital).


• DENTAC — Dental Activity.  Each DENTAC is the collocated healthcare partner of a MEDCEN or MEDDAC.  DENTACs supervise local and outlying dental clinics and dental clinic commands.  DENTACs at MEDCEN sites often are tertiary-care facilities with more specialists and special equipment.  Smaller DENTACs refer complex cases to them.


• Field medical units — Standardized Table of Organization and Equipment (TO&E) units, mobile and assigned to combat commands.  They are not part of U.S. Army Medical Command, but MEDCOM helps with their clinical training and supervises their clinical work.  Many MEDCOM people are "earmarked" to join these units in wartime.


• Fixed treatment facilities — Table of Distribution and Allowances (TDA) units, with staffs and equipment tailored for specific sites/roles.  In war, they remain in place and care for evacuated casualties.  U.S. Army Medical Command units are TDA.


• MEDCEN — Army Medical Center, offering tertiary care (sophisticated diagnosis/treatment of any ailment) as well as primary and secondary care.  Each MEDCEN has a hospital plus other services (preventive medicine, blood bank, etc.).  MEDCEN hospitals are larger than ACHs, have more sophisticated equipment and more specialized staffs, and offer wider arrays of specialty care.  All MEDCENs offer graduate medical education (internships, residencies, etc.) for physicians.


• MEDCOM — U.S. Army Medical Command, whose three-star commander is also Army surgeon general.  Includes virtually all of the AMEDD except field units.  Regional Medical Commands, or RMCs, are multistate command-and-control headquarters that allocate resources, oversee day-to-day management and foster readiness among MTFs in their areas.  Regional Dental Commands and Regional Veterinary Commands perform similar command-and-control functions.


• MEDDAC — Medical Department Activity, a medical command-and-control headquarters at a given post.  A typical MEDDAC includes one ACH or clinic plus non-hospital elements (preventive medicine, blood bank, etc.), but the number of ACHs is not rigidly fixed.  Also, not all ACHs belong to MEDDACs.


• MTF — Medical Treatment Facility.  Any Army medical care site, whether a clinic, hospital, medical center, etc.


• RMC — Regional Medical Command.  A multistate command-and-control headquarters that allocates resources, oversees day-to-day management and fosters readiness of MTFs in its region.  Regional dental commands and regional veterinary commands perform similar command-and-control functions.