Starting this month, the Trauma Division at PPMC joins with the United States Navy as the first civilian hospital to enter into a unique new military partnership. It is part of a broad effort to increase expertise for military clinicians and follows on a recommendation from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to integrate military trauma teams into the nation’s best trauma centers where they can maintain the skills necessary for deployments to austere environments. While deployed, the Navy Trauma unit may see more cases in six months than a civilian trauma center would see over the course of years, but between deployments, these same clinicians won’t see much major trauma at all. Placing them in select civilian hospitals between deployments enables uninterrupted exposure and proficiency both for the individual and the team.
The new three-year partnership will directly address these challenges. This novel program will integrate 11 members of the Navy with the PPMC Trauma division and the academic clinical departments of Surgery, Anesthesia, Emergency Medicine, and more, to provide intensive clinical and leadership training.
While other services of the military have partnered with civilian hospitals, the Penn Trauma and U.S. Navy Partnership is unique. “This partnership will work to develop a blueprint for other future partnerships and will serve as a test bed for curriculum and leadership development,” said C. William Schwab, MD, the founding chief of Penn Medicine’s Trauma Program, a professor emeritus of Trauma Surgery, and a veteran of the Navy himself. “This program with the U.S. Navy will broaden members’ experience in a trauma setting between deployments and layer in team-based training with the goal of producing a unit that is prepared for the rapid deployments to remote and hostile environments.”
“Many members of the Penn Medicine community have ties to the military, both through their own service and the service of family members. Penn Medicine has a deep appreciation for the sacrifices involved in serving our country, so we are grateful for this opportunity to contribute to these efforts. We know the value of pairing top-level clinical experience with highly-functional teamwork,” said Neil Ravitz, COO of Orthopaedics, who is helping lead the program. “Penn Medicine is thrilled to strengthen this relationship and continue to celebrate and support our staff and their families who have served.”
“This partnership will be truly bi-directional,” added Gene Gofman, MBA, associate chief financial officer helping lead the program. “Penn Medicine’s Trauma Division is incredibly talented at training teams to work collaboratively in order to provide the best possible care to patients, and the U.S. Navy team brings a wealth of experience and skills. We’re also eager to collaborate with the Navy and Department of Defense on groundbreaking research that will advance how we care for patients and improve outcomes, both in the hospital and on the battlefield.”
Meet the Team
The same high standards used in hiring all Penn Medicine staff were also applied in selecting the team members from the Navy. “Penn Medicine is committed to excellence across the board, and the partnership with the Navy is no exception,” said Beth Johnston, special assistant to the CEO, who will help oversee the program. “The members of the Navy Trauma team are of the highest caliber in their respective roles, and we’re excited to learn from them, while providing a rich training environment at the PPMC Trauma Center.”
The Navy team will be comprised of 11 members: an administrator, four physicians, three nurses, a physician assistant, a surgical technician, and a corpsman. They will onboard into their respective clinical department as any Penn Medicine new hire would and will full integrate into PPMC and department clinical operations. They will be held to the same rigorous standards as all other staff, and patients will not see a difference between being cared for by a member of the Navy team or by a member of the Trauma division.
Commander Derek Foerschler, anesthesiologist and department head, completed his residency and fellowship at The Ohio State University and served three deployments, and also has been the program director for the anesthesia post-graduate training programs at the Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, Virginia. Commander Foerschler has numerous publications and will serve as the program director for the Navy.
Lieutenant Commander William Lawson will serve as administrative officer for the Navy team. While serving in the Navy for the past 13 years, he was deployed in Operation Inherent Resolve — the international military intervention against ISIL — and also has experience working in civilian health care. Commander Lawson will be a member of Gene Gofman’s team, helping to integrate the Navy team into Penn Medicine operations.
On the physician team:
Commander Jay Yelon, trauma surgeon, has a distinguished career as a civilian trauma surgeon, with Naval Reserve duties for five years, including deployments to six different countries. Commander Yelon has also authored over 50 professional publications.
Commander Robert Oldt, Emergency Medicine physician, is the chief of Professional Services at Camp Lejeune. He also holds an academic appointment as assistant professor of Military and Emergency Medicine at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Previously, he served as the department head in the Emergency Department and assistant officer in charge of the Forward Resuscitative Surgical System/Shock Trauma Platoon. His deployments include a mission on the USNS COMFORT, and another mission in Afghanistan.
Lieutenant Hyun Kyoung Na, emergency medicine nurse, brings her experience to the team both from a three-year Navy career, and from civilian nursing. She was deployed on the USS Comfort, and is a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing.
Lieutenant Natasha McClinton, a perioperative nurse, brings with her 21 years of experience in the Navy, including deployment on the USS Comfort.
Lieutenant Demerce Young, critical care nurse, has 22 years of Navy experience, including deployments to the Middle East, Central America and Caribbean.
Lieutenant Commander Zachary Hare, physician assistant, has been with the Navy for over 20 years, including deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.
Hospital Corpsman Brett Adkins, is a search and rescue medical technician with the Navy for more than seven years, including a deployment on the USS Batan.
Hospital Corpsman Second Class Navy Nguyen will join the team as a surgical technologist. HM2 Nguyen has eight different surgical specialties, and a nine-year Navy career. He was deployed to Venezuela and Japan.
Penn Medicine will welcome the Navy team as well as the U.S. Surgeon General to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center on September 9 and 10 for a celebration and tour of the campus. We are excited to welcome them aboard!