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1-7. CORPS LEVEL (ECHELON III) AND COMMZ LEVEL (ECHELON IV)
Corps and COMMZ level medical support is provided by units assigned to the corps medical group, medical brigade, or theater Army (TA) medical command. Area medical support is provided by units such as the area support medical battalion, dental battalions, veterinary service units, and preventive medicine units. Facilities are organized and equipped in modules that contain standardized medical equipment sets (MES) or medical material sets (MMS). The mission for the hospital system is two-fold. First, it is designed to maximize return to duty of patients. Second, it provides the necessary treatment to stabilize those patients not expected to return to duty for evacuation within the limits of the theater evacuation policy.
a. Echelon III Corps Level Hospitals. At Echelon III, patients are admitted to and treated in the combat support hospital (CSH), which is staffed and equipped to provide care for all categories of patients. Here, patients are treated and held within the parameters of the theater/corps evacuation policy. Patients are either returned to duty or evacuated to an Echelon IV hospital. The CSH is a 296-bed facility and is normally deployed in the corps area.
b. Echelon IV COMMZ Level Hospitals.
(1) At Echelon IV, the patients receive medical care in hospitals that are staffed and equipped to provide general and specialized medical care. There are two different hospitals employed at Echelon IV. One is employed to recondition and rehabilitate soldiers who can be returned to duty within theater policy guidelines. The other is employed to treat and stabilize patients destined to be evacuated to Echelon V (CONUS based hospitals).(a) The general hospital (GH) is a 476-bed hospital that provides care to all classes of patients. The GH is the primary conduit for patients awaiting evacuation to CONUS.
(b) The field hospital (FH) is a 505-bed hospital that is staffed and equipped to treat all categories of patients. However, its principal mission is to treat and rehabilitate those patients who can return to duty within the stated theater evacuation policy.
(2) The medical treatment company receives, sorts, and provides resuscitation and stabilization of patients until evacuated and provides treatment for patients with minor illnesses or injuries. It may be employed to expand hospital
capacities or as a holding facility of up to 1200 total cots for minimal care patients. It is 100 percent mobile and is allocated on the basis of one per division supported in the combat zone and one per two divisions supported in the COMMZ.
(3) This echelon characterizes the theater (operational) level combat health support system, which is oriented toward providing support to the forward deployed corps. Echelon IV contains all the services outlined for Echelon III to include theater medical logistics management and medical laboratory assets. Support for contingency operations is normally initialized at this echelon.
