Dilemma Over Medical Command and Control

摘要

The command surgeon presents a dilemma to the line and staff model in that the command surgeon actually performs line and staff functions. An attempt to solve this dilemma is playing out in Army Transformation as the Army and the Army Medical Department (AMEDD) leadership struggle with how to flatten medical command and control structures. The AMEDD maintains that it needs four regionally focused medical commands, in the form of a Medical Command (Deployment Support) MEDCOM(DS), at the Army Service Component Command (ASCC) level. At this same level, each regionally focused ASCC commander has a command surgeon with a staff section that appears to serve the same function as the medical command. The question that needs to be answered is, is there a difference between the ASCC Command Surgeon's Division and the MEDCOM(DS).