patients from the corps; providing area health service support in the COMMZ; and
providing definitive medical treatment at fixed hospitals. Air evacuation from the corps
is a responsibility of the USAF. Communications zone health service support is
provided by the MEDCOM.
(5) Zone of Interior Level. The final, fight, level of health service support is
the ZI. However, this is not a part of the TO.
b. Area Health Service Support. This concept of health service support
involves the delineation of support responsibility by geographical area. It includes the
provision of unit level health service support to organizations that do not possess an
organic medical capability. Medical units required for support is allocated based upon
troop strength, and are established where and when requirements indicate. In an Army
division, units without an organic health service support capability receive this support
from the nearest supporting medical facility.
4-5.
EVACUATION AND HOSPITALIZATION SYSTEM
Basically, the system of evacuation and hospitalization in the area of operations,
depicted in Figure 4-1, functions in the following manner:
a. When a soldier in a combat battalion is wounded on the battlefield, the first
aid is self-aid or buddy aid as the situation allows, he then receives medical care from
one of the company aidmen. These aidmen perform emergency medical care. The
patient is then evacuated by litterbearers or by field ambulance to a company aid post,
where he may be given further emergency medical care, and then to the battalion aid
station. The patient may bypass the company aid post and be moved directly to the aid
station. The aid station is the first medical facility in the evacuation system where a
patient is treated by medical personnel who have had specialized medical training
beyond that provided the aidmen. A physician and physician assistant (PA) (warrant
officer) and patient care specialists are included among the personnel assigned to the
aid station. As many patients as possible are returned to duty after treatment. If the
patient requires additional treatment, he is prepared for further evacuation. When
evacuated beyond the battalion aid station, he leaves the unit level health service
support system and enters the division level system. An ambulance from a medical
company of the FSB picks up the patient at the battalion aid station and transports him
to the supporting division treatment station. The treatment station is capable of more
extensive treatment.
b. Assuming that this patient is to be evacuated farther to the rear, sufficient
treatment is given to prepare him for the trip. An ambulance--either ground or air--then
comes forward from the corps area and evacuates the patient to a Mobile Army Surgical
Hospital (MASH) or a CSH, both of which are corps level hospital units. These
hospitals are capable of giving more definitive treatment than the division treatment
station and have a greater holding capacity.
MD0002
4-6