Medical Readiness: The U.S. Army Can Improve Its Management of POMCUS Hospital Equipment in Europe

Highlights

GAO reviewed the Army's management of Prepositioned Overseas Materiel Configured to Unit Sets (POMCUS) hospital equipment in Europe.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected	Recommendation	Status
U.S. Army, Europe	To ensure that U.S. Army Combat Equipment Group, Europe (CEGE) efforts to requisition equipment for pre-DEPMEDS POMCUS hospitals are properly coordinated with the Department of the Army's efforts to field DEPMEDS, the Commander-in-Chief, USAREUR, should direct the Commander, CEGE, to request that the appropriate National Inventory Control Points cancel all outstanding requisitions for the 11 hospitals that currently have little, if any, of their authorized medical equipment sets and will not receive any additional medical equipment sets prior to receiving DEPMEDS.	Closed – Implemented The Army Surgeon General identified those items common to DEPMEDS and MUST systems, and cancelled all due ins for MUST peculiar items.
U.S. Army, Europe	To ensure that CEGE efforts to requisition equipment for pre-DEPMEDS POMCUS hospitals are properly coordinated with the Department of the Army's efforts to field DEPMEDS, the Commander-in-Chief, USAREUR, should direct the Commander, CEGE, to not requisition any additional equipment for these 11 hospitals until the Department of the Army identifies which items of equipment are common to both DEPMEDS and pre-DEPMEDS hospitals.	Closed – Implemented The Army Surgeon General identified those items common to DEPMEDS and MUST systems, and cancelled all due ins for MUST peculiar items.
U.S. Army, Europe	The Commander-in-Chief, USAREUR, should direct the Commander, 7th Medical Command (MEDCOM) to coordinate with the Department of the Army to determine which items: (1) are common to both the pre-DEPMEDS and DEPMEDS hospitals; and (2) will not be included in the DEPMEDS fielding package.	Closed – Implemented The Army Surgeon General identified those items common to DEPMEDS and MUST systems, and cancelled all due ins for MUST peculiar items.
U.S. Army, Europe	The Commander-in-Chief, USAREUR, should improve the requisitioning procedures and coordination among CEGE, the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Center, Europe (USAMMCE), and the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency (USAMMA) to ensure that CEGE receives timely and continuous information on the status of outstanding requisitions for POMCUS medical equipment.	Closed – Implemented The Standard Army Intermediate Logistics System (SAILS), coupled with the MILSTRIP system, will provide the status of requisitions. CEGE has become a USAMMCE customer and will submit MILSTRIP requisitions for Class VIII POMCUS requirements. Requisitions will be placed into the routine SAILS cycle, which provides customer status.
U.S. Army, Europe	To ensure that the capabilities of the five pre-DEPMEDS POMCUS general hospitals are developed in an efficient and an effective manner, the Commander-in-Chief, USAREUR, should direct the Commander, 7th MEDCOM, to verify the current equipment status of these hospitals.	Closed – Implemented The verification was accomplished during August 1986. Requisitioned items were checked against open build directives and receipt notification from Burtonwood open document numbers were validated by USAMMA at that time.
U.S. Army, Europe	To ensure that the capabilities of the five pre-DEPMEDS POMCUS general hospitals are developed in an efficient and an effective manner, the Commander-in-Chief, USAREUR, should direct the Commander, 7th MEDCOM, to determine the status of USAMMA efforts to fill medical equipment shortages in these hospitals and take appropriate actions to ensure that all authorized medical equipment items are either on hand or being procured.	Closed – Implemented USAMMA has all medical equipment items on order. A11 99 build directives were closed and the last items were to be shipped by March 1987.
U.S. Army, Europe	To ensure that the capabilities of the five pre-DEPMEDS POMCUS general hospitals are developed in an efficient and an effective manner, the Commander-in-Chief, USAREUR, should direct the Commander, 7th Medical Command (MEDCOM), to expedite efforts to acquire and develop warm-based sites.	Closed – Implemented Two hospitals have been warm-based. Efforts are being made to warm-base the remaining three. USAREUR has located sites for two of these hospitals, and continues to search for a fifth site.
U.S. Army, Europe	To ensure that the capabilities of the five pre-DEPMEDS POMCUS general hospitals are developed in an efficient and an effective manner, the Commander-in-Chief, USAREUR, should direct the Commander, 7th MEDCOM, to coordinate with other appropriate Army organizations to ensure that nonmedical equipment and personnel requirements are identified and that a Table of Organization and Equipment (TOE) is developed.	Closed – Implemented There is an approval Army TOE for the general hospital. This TOE identifies all equipment and personnel requirements for the general hospital.
U.S. Army, Europe	To ensure that the capabilities of the five pre-DEPMEDS POMCUS general hospitals are developed in an efficient and an effective manner, the Commander-in-Chief, USAREUR, should direct the Commander, 7th MEDCOM, to identify and redistribute any excess items.	Closed – Implemented All excess items have been identified and are being redistributed.
U.S. Army, Europe	To ensure that the capabilities of the five pre-DEPMEDS POMCUS general hospitals are developed in an efficient and an effective manner, the Commander-in-Chief, USAREUR, should direct the Commander, 7th MEDCOM, to determine whether any of the equipment that is not authorized for prepositioning is essential to support these hospitals' missions and, if it is, take appropriate action to ensure that the equipment is added to the list of authorized equipment.	Closed – Implemented The list of items not authorized for prepositioning were reviewed on December 15, 1986, by the Army Office of the Surgeon General. All items met the criteria for this program.
U.S. Army, Europe	To ensure that the capabilities of the five pre-DEPMEDS POMCUS general hospitals are developed in an efficient and an effective manner, the Commander-in-Chief, USAREUR, should direct the Commander, 7th MEDCOM, to defer the replacement of potency and dated items until most of the equipment shortages are filled and the hospitals are warm-based.	Closed – Implemented USAMMCE no longer replaces potency and dated items for these hospitals. Warm-based replacement of potency and dated items will be reinstituted.
U.S. Army, Europe	To ensure that the capabilities of the five pre-DEPMEDS POMCUS general hospitals are developed in an efficient and an effective manner, the Commander-in-Chief, USAREUR, should direct the Commander, 7th MEDCOM, to determine what nonmedical equipment is available at the warm-based sites or through host nation support.	Closed – Not Implemented USAREUR does not intend to reduce any of its non-medical equipment requirements for its POMCUS general hospitals when they are warm-based. Their contention is that, even after warm-basing these hospitals, they will need all of their authorized non-medical equipment.
U.S. Army, Europe	The Commander-in-Chief, USAREUR, should direct the Commander, CEGE, to request cancellation of all equipment requisitions for these five general hospitals and defer submitting any additional requisitions until: (1) the hospitals' equipment status and equipment requirements have been determined; and (2) 7th MEDCOM has determined what nonmedical equipment is available at the warm-based sites and/or through host nation support.	Closed – Implemented During August 1986, the equipment status of the five hospitals was identified. The items requisitioned were checked against open build directives, and receipt notification from Burtonwood open document numbers were validated by USAMMA at that time.
U.S. Army, Europe	In view of ongoing efforts to enhance the readiness of the five general hospitals, the Commander-in-Chief, USAREUR, should advise the Department of the Army that it is not necessary to replace these equipment sets with DEPMEDS equipment.	Closed – Implemented USAREUR recommended to the Army Surgeon General, and the Surgeon General concurred, that DEPMEDS equipment not be purchased for the five general hospitals. The hospitals were deleted from the DEPMEDS distribution schedule.
U.S. Army, Europe	To ensure that USAREUR can effectively manage its POMCUS hospital equipment and properly prepare for its wartime medical mission, the Commander-in-Chief, USAREUR, should direct the Commander, 7th MEDCOM, to verify the medical equipment status of all POMCUS hospitals and provide the results to CEGE.	Closed – Implemented CEGE will submit standard MILSTRIP requisitions for all Class VIII POMCUS requirements. The requisitions will be forwarded to USAMMCE and placed in the routine SAILS cycle, which provides customer automatic status. By using MILSTRIP and SAILS, requisitions are validated and the status is furnished to CEGE and USAMMA.
U.S. Army, Europe	To ensure that USAREUR can effectively manage its POMCUS hospital equipment and properly prepare for its wartime medical mission, the Commander-in-Chief, USAREUR, should direct the Commander, 7th MEDCOM, to validate POMCUS hospitals' outstanding medical equipment requisitions and provide the results to CEGE and USAMMA.	Closed – Implemented CEGE will submit standard MILSTRIP requisitions for all Class VIII POMCUS requirements. The requsitions will be forwarded to USAMMCE and placed in the routine SAILS cycle which provides customer automatic status. By using MILSTRIP and SAILS, requisitions are validated and the status is furnished to CEGE and USAMMA.
U.S. Army, Europe	To ensure that USAREUR can effectively manage its POMCUS hospital equipment and properly prepare for its wartime medical mission, the Commander-in-Chief, USAREUR, should direct the Commander, 7th MEDCOM, to coordinate the development and installation of a medical equipment set management information system for USAMMCE.	Closed – Implemented A locally developed computer system has been implemented that gives USAMMC visibility over medical equipment sets in POMCUS.
U.S. Army, Europe	To ensure that USAREUR can effectively manage its POMCUS hospital equipment and properly prepare for its wartime medical mission, the Commander-in-Chief, USAREUR, should direct the Commander, 7th MEDCOM, to establish reporting requirements for USAMMCE that will ensure greater visibility over the equipment status of POMCUS hospitals' medical equipment and that will allow management to: (1) identify equipment problems that have a critical impact on readiness; and (2) take timely and appropriate action to correct these problems.	Closed – Implemented The Army will use SAILS and MILSTRIP to ensure visibility over equipment status of POMCUS hospitals. Status reports can be obtained from USAMMCE and CEGE, which provide the necessary visibility.

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