Army now requiring soldiers to undergo annual physicals

[unhappycamper]

Pat Grimm, a physician’s assistant at the Kleber Casern health clinic in Kaiserslautern, Germany, discusses the annual physical health assessment with Capt. Monica Mitchell. Mitchell was in the process of receiving her PHA.


Army now requiring soldiers to undergo annual physicals
By Charlie Reed, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, February 24, 2008

Hoping to catch medical problems before they stop soldiers from going downrange, the Army is now requiring troops to undergo annual physicals.

Pre- and post-deployment medical screenings aside, troops received mandatory checkups only once every five years before the Army adopted the more preventative approach.

The lapse often meant that minor problems went untreated, became worse and then were only detected before soldiers were scheduled to deploy.

But the new system should help avoid “these last-minutes crises that always happen,” said Dr. (Col.) Karen K. O’Brien, director of health policy and services for the Office of the Army Surgeon General.

Now, it is expected “your knee problem doesn’t just surface when you’re getting ready to go to Iraq,” she said. “We’d like to find it a few years before to give you the optimal time to recover.”


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52767

[lligrd]

1. Hmm, Why Am I Skeptical About The Reason For These

exams?