Military Review English Edition May-June 2014 | Page 60

engagements with district and provincial Afghan
health officials—that found unmet health needs
in Uruzgan.
The assessment’s principal finding was a significant knowledge and skills deficit in the individuals providing trauma services at TK Hospital.
Therefore, most injured patients were cared for
in U.S. and coalition facilities in the area. To
address the deficit and expand local capabilities
for the future, a three-year training program for
TK Hospital staff was designed, approved, and
implemented. An essential criterion for entry into
the program was a commitment on the part of the
participants to remain in practice at TK Hospital
and serve the population of Uruzgan following
their graduation. The complement of participants
included four groups of three local Afghan providers, each including a physician, a nurse, and an
anesthetist. The participants lived and worked at
TK FSE alongside U.S. personnel for three months
of the year and worked and trained others at TK
Hospital the remaining nine months. The trainees
participated in all aspects of care performed at the
FSE, including the resuscitation of trauma and
acute surgical patients, assisting in operations,
and caring for patients in the small hospital ward.
U.S. military trauma and orthopedic surgeons

supervised all aspects of the Afghan trainees’ work
and validated their progress.
The Afghan participants were paid for their
participation in the AMTPV program by Commander’s Emergency Relief Program funds from
the SOTF, with a total annual cost of $76,000. The
FSE could help provide care for local national
and noncoalition military patients who would not
otherwise receive coalition medical care because
of their ongoing training of Afghan providers
and also the SOTF command’s support of medical
COIN engagements. The additional workload at
the FSE increased resource utilization and provided training experience for AMTPV participants,
expanding the capacity of the Afghan health sector
to care for its own people. The success of the
program was striking: at the program’s midpoint,
TK Hospital experienced a 100 percent increase in
admissions, and we saw a corresponding decrease
in the local population’s use of coalition health
resources.

TK Hospital—TK FSE
Partnership

With the successful implementation of the
AMTPV program, a strong and durable partnership
between TK Hospital and TK FSE evolved. This

Afghan physic