Keesler wins AETC's 'Team Aerospace' award Published March 13, 2013 By Steve Pivnick 81st Medical Group Public Affairs KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- A true team effort involving active-duty and reserve elements has garnered the Air Education and Training Command Team Aerospace award. The award normally recognizes an active duty or Air Force Reserve Command team for significant contributions to the mission and vision of "Team aerospace" over the preceding calendar year. The award winners now compete for Air Force honors. "The hospital without walls" concept includes "Team Aerospace" medics from Keesler Medical Center and the AFRC's 403rd Aeromedical Staging Squadron at Keesler and 14th Medical Group at Columbus Air Force Base, Miss., as well as joint partners across the Gulf Coast. Among the many achievements cited in the award nomination, the team "demolished stovepipes by creating a joint and total force regional aeromedical center of 'Excellence'. The 'hospital without walls' focused on bringing medics together with deployers and operators to develop aerominded clinical and operational currency and competency." In addition, the team "created a novel 'rebluing' process for flight surgeon specialists allowing for both flight surgeon access plus orthopedic and dermatology specialty care to the region. The partners learned from each other to deliver enhanced support for multiple unique missions." From the Columbus perspective, the "hospital without walls" program allowed the wing to train 426 flying training graduates completing over 58,000 sorties "at the Air Force's busiest military airfield, providing valuable lessons learned to the AETC pipeline." The citation also observed the team's regional flight surgeon redundancy, allowing simultaneous missions in multiple areas of responsibility where flight surgeons leant support to five different wings and four deployed locations over the course of the year. In supporting the 403rd Wing's aircrews, the nomination noted the team executed a comprehensive counter-fatigue program - the first and only one for AFRC operations in the continental United States. And during the 2012 hurricane season, they "delivered a storm-season win with the first total-force integration team medical site survey at the Hurricane Hunters forward operating base." By leveraging local subject matter experts to push an obstructive sleep apnea policy change with a base-level "tiger team," flight surgeons were able to "slash medical board requirement for 2,000 cases per year and cut the Air Force Medical Evaluation Board workload by more than 30 percent." The nomination concluded, "operational medicine is now 'cool' in the least likely of places: two bases, three partner wings and three major air commands." Commenting on the award, Keesler Medical Center commander Brig. Gen. (Dr.) Kory Cornum said, "It's fun to work hard together to support the mission and learn good things while we provide the best care for our patients. The most important thing on all of our uniforms is a big "U.S."....it really doesn't matter what color outfit you wear, or whether you are active, guard, or reserve...all of us are on the same team, and we are all family....so that's how we take care of each other." Col. Craig La Fave, 403rd Wing commander, added, "This award is another great example of our strong total force integration here at Keesler. Visitors to our base routinely tell us they can't tell the difference between an 81st TRW Airman and a 403rd Wing Airman and our medical units are no different. They've worked hard for this award and we're very proud of their accomplishments together as a total force team." This unique regional program is a win-win for the entire health team. "This innovative approach by flight medicine has been helpful to all of us involved," stated Col. Billye Hutchison, 14th MDG commander. "Combining different expertise and resources allowed us to achieve greater local and regional mission success while our beneficiaries received specialty medical services within our clinic." "The flying squadrons leaned forward to provide our visiting flight surgeons valuable AETC pilot training flying experience," Hutchison adds. "This award recognizes the teamwork within our organizations; I am very proud of all of our Columbus team aerospace members."