JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. - The Medical Storage and Maintenance Facility located at the Army Reserve's Equipment Concentration Site 99 is entering the "walk" stage of a pilot program that was started here in January 2012.
The overall intent is to have the medical equipment concentration sites take care of 50 percent of the medical maintenance of the assets assigned to the U.S. military, while the other 50 percent will be maintained at the medical logistic companies and organic equipment specialists assigned to dental units in combat support hospitals.
"The Army Reserve has about 29,500 pieces of bio-medical maintenance significant items in the inventory," said Chief Warrant Officer Robert Greenhoe, U.S. Army Reserve Command health services maintenance supervisor. "The fielding can be done here and we can phase the old out when it comes in, which saves on travel time and cost because the equipment is in the same place."
"It still belongs to the unit, but they can pull it out whenever they need it and it will be properly maintained," he added.
This 60,000-square-foot, solar-powered, climate-controlled facility provides the 3rd Medical Deployment Support Command storage space for medical, dental, veterinary, forward surgical and early entry hospital equipment, as well as maintenance capabilities for bio-medical equipment and X-ray, ventilator and defibrillator repair.
Army Reserve technicians and civilian bio-technician contractors run diagnostic tests on all the equipment at the medical equipment concentration site to certify that it is serviceable, and the medical supply contractors process the work orders and repair parts.
This medical equipment concentration site also serves as a sustainment training site for soldiers in the medical field. The 3rd MDSC and its subordinate brigades use this state-of-the-art facility in a partnership that marks the first of its kind in the Army Reserve.
"We are running into some small pitfalls, but we are overcoming as we go," said Bernard Olszewski, ECS 99 manager. "I feel that this is going to be a great asset for Army medicine. It's something that needed to be done for years, and I am glad to be a part of the initial startup."
ECS 99 is part of the Army Reserve's 99th Regional Support Command, which acts as a "virtual installation" that provides base-operations support to more than 51,000 Army Reserve soldiers, 400 units and 350 facilities for the entire Northeast region from Maine to Virginia in order to give its warrior-citizens and their families the care, support, services and training they deserve.
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