Army to Establish 'Warrior Transition Units'

Army to Establish 'Warrior Transition Units'
Army News Service Gary Sheftick and Franz Holzer October 09, 2007



Warrior Transition Units at Center of Army Medical Action Plan
WASHINGTON - The Army is establishing 32 "Warrior Transition Units" at major installations across the force to streamline care for wounded Soldiers.

The new units are the centerpiece of the Army Medical Action Plan headed up by Brig. Gen. Mike Tucker. His AMAP team went to work in June and identified about 150 items in the system that needed improving, he said during a panel presentation today at the annual meeting of the Association of the U.S. Army.

Better housing for wounded Soldiers was one of the improvements. The Army has allocated $173.5 million in Operations and Maintenance funding and another $1.2 billion in Military Construction funds for Warrior Transition Unit facilities and projects, said Maj. Gen. John MacDonald of the Installation Management Command.

"The Army is putting its money where its mouth is," Maj. Gen. MacDonald said. "...So that we have close to the hospitals a set of barracks that is accessible."

More Wounded Warrior News

The new Warrior Transition Units will do much more than replace Medical Hold Companies, said the Army's acting Surgeon General, Maj. Gen. Gale S. Pollock. She said the units will combine what used to be separate structures for the active and reserve components and bring a new level of care to all patients.

Prior to the creation of the WTUs, most active-component Soldiers requiring complex treatment remained assigned to their parent units or to a rear detachment. Some were assigned or attached to Medical Hold Companies overseen by the Army Medical Command. Reserve Component Soldiers were managed differently, attached to Medical Hold-Over Companies overseen by the Army Installation Management Command.
go here for the rest
http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,152058,00.html