Observations From Embedded Health Engagement Team Members
Introduction: A joint embedded health engagement team (EHET) was created and executed as a test of an alternative health engagement method during Operation Continuing Promise 2011. This article relates the personal observations of team members.
Materials and Methods: The EHET was integrated into the host nation’s public health system to collaborate in direct patient care, contribute to comprehensive preventive health, and achieve intellectual exchange between professionals of similar disciplines. Team members recorded their personal observations, noting particularly how they worked with the partners and how the EHET differed from other methods of health engagement.
Results: EHET resulted in greater satisfaction on behalf of the host nation and US health professionals, detailed insight into local operations and health system understanding, deeper empathy and respect for similar challenges despite differences from US and US Department of Defense health system practices.
Conclusions: The EHET afforded deep insight by team members into ways to partner with hosts to target better health outcomes and meaningful partnership for potential long-term geopolitical impact. EHETs of longer duration, or recurrent insertion, in a single location will achieve greater long-term benefits because of greater health system and cultural understanding that can be attained. EHETs will be a more effective health engagement tool in building partnerships, building capacity, increased security cooperation, and enhance medical readiness while using US military resources to support legitimate health needs either in a military to military or military to civilian setting.
Conclusions
The EHET concept afforded deep insight by team members into ways to partner with their hosts to target better health outcomes and meaningful partnership for potential long-term geopolitical impact. Long duration embedded teams, or recurrent insertion, in a single location will achieve greater long-term benefits because of greater health system and cultural understanding. EHETs, once accepted and refined from prototype to standard employment tool, should prove to be a more effective tool in building partnerships, building capacity, and increased security cooperation by using US military resources to support legitimate health needs either in a military-military or military-civilian setting.5 These firsthand accounts provide preliminary evidence that embedded teams may be a critical and needed tool to “ensure that military health engagement is appropriate, constructive, effective, and coordinated with other actors.”6
Acknowledgments
Additional original EHET team members included LCDR Jeanne Jimenez, RN; CDR Francine Worthington, Health Administrator; Maj Tony McClung, RN; Mrs. Romero, RN of LDS Charities, and the staff of the Chacarita clinics in Costa Rica.
