VCOM 2020 Annual Report

SPECIAL REPORT

Caring for our Military and Civilians As the chief medical officer and brigade surgeon for the U.S. Army’s only Special

Maj. John Schwartz, DO Class of 2011, VCOM-Virginia, Family Medicine, Chief Medical Officer and Brigade Surgeon, U.S. Army Flight Surgeon, Fort Bragg, NC

with concerns for managing the safety and welfare of my family and myself, as I often moonlight in an Urgent Care Clinic in Fayetteville, NC, near our home. The photo (shown on the right) is a recent one of me in the clinic going in to see a suspected COVID-19 positive patient. My PPE may look a little interesting because they were short on supplies. I am wearing a shoe cover on my

Operations Civil Affairs Brigade, the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade, Special Operations- Airborne. I have been working to coordinate care and medical support for our Civil Affairs Teams all over the world.

“...in an area where tests have not been widely available... [it] really forced me to rely on the physical exam skills and medical knowledge that the amazing professors from VCOM taught me.”

Managing their mission readiness, healthcare and travel, in light of the pandemic, has been a unique challenge. I have also been refining a curriculum to help my Special Operations Combat Medics to be able to understand the intricacies of caring for COVID-19

head to serve as a cap. Thankfully, I was able to bring my own N95 mask from home. Despite all of the recent struggles, I am very fortunate to have graduated from VCOM- Virginia, where there is always such a strong

patients in the hospital and in austere environments. I have been working to coordinate our response with Womack Army Medical Center and the Commanding General’s staff and senior medical officials for our garrison.

focus on rural medicine and on using physical exams along with clinical judgment to treat patients. Working Urgent Care and Family Medicine Clinics in an area where tests have not been widely available (until recently) really forced me to rely on the physical exam skills and medical knowledge that the amazing professors from VCOM taught me.”

Along with my military medical duties, I have also been dealing

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