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Army Medical Readiness

Provided by Office of the Surgeon General / U.S. Army Medical Command Friday, October 30, 2020

What is it?

Readiness and deployability remains an enduring emphasis for the U.S. Army. Army Medicine ensures that Soldiers are able to maintain their medical readiness and medically ready to fight tonight, when called upon. Being medically ready means being current on Periodic Health Assessments (PHAs), Annual Dental Examinations, and Optometry Examinations.

Commanders play an integral role in maintaining their unit’s medical readiness, by emphasizing the critical importance to their units, and communicating effectively with profiling providers to make Soldier deployability determinations through the Commanders portal.

What are the current and past efforts of the Army?

Army Medicine is currently evaluating multiple strategies to improve access to medical readiness services. This includes:

  • Policy changes allowing expanded virtual health availability and operational programs. This will supplement military medical treatment facilities with resources to operate in the COVID-19 environment.
  • Ongoing efforts to monitor the long term health of Soldiers through updates to PHAs, Post-Deployment Health Assessments (PDHAs), and Post-Deployment Health Reassessments (PDHRAs).

Soldiers ultimately have the primary responsibility for maintaining their medical readiness through completion of required annual screenings utilizing virtual health.

What continued efforts does the Army have planned?

  • Army Medicine is committed to providing Soldiers, Families, and retirees with the safest access to care during the COVID-19 pandemic and into the future. Virtual health provides fast, effective, and safe health care to Soldiers, Families, and the retirees.
  • The Army, in coordination with the other Services, is determining the feasibility of developing a joint medical waiver system to improve transparency, throughput, and tracking of healthcare issues.
  • AR 40-501 Standards of Medical Fitness, AR 40-502 Medical Readiness, and the associated DA PAM 40-502 Medical Readiness are under revision to better align Soldier medical readiness with deployability.

Why is this important to the Army?

The number one priority of the Army is the protection of it’s people. Medical Readiness allows the Army to mobilize Soldiers and meet the Army mission. Every Soldier is responsible for their medical readiness and must remain dedicated and resilient in the Army’s pursuit of readiness.

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Focus Quote for the Day

We need our Soldiers to know we are delivering quality health care and meeting the requirement to support the force, whether in peacetime or in combat. They can count on Army Medicine without any shadow of a doubt.

— Lt. Gen. R. Scott Dingle, 45th Surgeon General of the Army and commanding general, U.S. Army Medical Command