JBA’s medicine clinic offers superb medical care to flying Airmen, sr leaders

  • Published
  • By Col. Lynda Vu, Director, Pentagon Flight Medicine Annex
  • Air Force District of Washington

(This story is the seventh of 10 stories about the more than 1,500 Air Force health care professionals who make up the 79th Medical Wing and the vast expertise they bring to executing the organization's mission of providing medical services for expeditionary deployment and defense operations in the National Capital Region and around the world.)


The 79th Medical Wing has medical assets stationed across the National Capital Region, delivering 42 world-class healthcare specialties to hundreds of thousands of warfighters and other Tricare beneficiaries. One of those assets is the 779th Medical Group’s Pentagon Flight Medicine Clinic that provides rapid medical care to countless service members assigned to the Pentagon, regardless of rank, service or seniority status.

 

Over the years, the clinic has met with incredible success in consistently delivering high-quality, full spectrum medical care to its patients.  As a result of this success, in 2009, then-Air Force Chief of Staff Norton Schwartz directed the Air Force Surgeon General to stand up an Annex to the PFMC at Joint Base Andrews, MD.

 

The PFM Annex is the DoD’s first dedicated presidential support clinic whose mission is to provide premier healthcare, rapid access and superior customer satisfaction to more than 1,200 active duty and civilian members assigned to the Presidential Airlift Group and other units in the region performing presidential support duties. The clinic collaborates closely with the White House medical staff to ensure that those working closest to our Commander-in-Chief are able to meet the most stringent medical suitability standards. The Annex also serves senior leaders and other personnel who need flexibility in scheduling to meet their unique mission requirements. 

 

Like the PFMC, the Annex provides a wide variety of primary care, aerospace, operational, acupuncture & complementary healthcare and immunization services. Both clinics are models of the Air Force Medical Home concept with a unique addition-- a public health technician. The PHT’s breadth of activities is comprehensive and includes skills such as conducting audiograms, industrial shop visits, food and public facility safety inspections, infectious disease tracking and reporting and travel medicine assessments. The clinic’s broad scope of operational medicine services with a dedicated PHT on our team makes us operationally agile to meet the vast array of mission needs of our population and allows us to find a way to say “yes” to our patient’s needs.

 

As the director of the PFM Annex, I am honored to be part of such an incredible team of the highest caliber providers, nurses and technicians committed to caring for the vital men and women dedicated to serving our nation’s top leaders.