Medical Logistics - Army Logistics University - U.S. Army

DCAM: Managing MEDLOG
Systems on the Battlefield
by bill sn e t h e n
yet important” is the mantra of medical
logisticians manning medical facilities
“Tedious,
on the frontlines and at home. Tasked with
ordering, maintaining, and reporting the status of class
VIII (medical supplies), medical logisticians have the
arduous task of ensuring commanders and medical
professionals at all levels of healthcare always have on
hand critical items, such as tourniquets, iodine, saline,
and intravenous (IV) bags. Service members’ wellbeing
weighs in the balance.
The monotonous task of counting stock on shelves
helps to identify items that need reordering. For
decades, replenishing those supplies meant filling
out paper order forms and faxing or mailing them to
suppliers. Those supply order forms often got lost en
route. Forms that arrived at the supplier were often
delayed by poor handwriting that caused misshipment
of the requested supplies. Medical logisticians hoped
and prayed the orders made it through. Commanders
and clinicians relied on those orders to replenish their
critical medical supplies.
The Department of Defense Medical Communications
for Combat Casualty Care (MC4) system
was fielded to Kuwait in 2003 to remove any question
of whether or not orders would be received and
filled. Today, more than 25,000 MC4 laptops, handheld
devices, servers, and printers have been fielded
to combat support hospitals, battalion aid stations,
and medical detachments throughout Southwest
Asia, proving that electronic recording is the way
of today.
20
Secure Order System
In addition to streamlining the electronic medical
recording mission at hand, MC4 laptops are used to
access the Theater Army Medical Management Information
System Customer Assistance Module (TCAM)
application and digitally draft, submit, and process
supply orders.
Although many users focused on just placing their
orders, TCAM had additional features and benefits.
However, TCAM had one inherent flaw: it transmitted
supply orders via an unsecure file transfer protocol
(FTP) connection, leaving units hesitant to use the
system and encouraging them to revert to paper-based
methods of the past.
In March 2007, MC4 personnel fielded an improved
medical logistics (MEDLOG) system to replace
TCAM, featuring the secure Defense Medical Logistics
Standard Support Customer Assistance Module
(DCAM) application. During the first 12 months after
DCAM’s launch, more than 270,000 class VIII orders
were submitted in Balad, Iraq, and Bagram, Afghanistan,
by more than 560 users via MC4 systems.
Supply orders now traverse a secure connection on
their way to supply houses in Qatar, Germany, and
the United States. “DCAM uses a secure port that
increases the security of passwords and order information,”
said Major Frederick White of the 6th Medical
Logistics Management Center. “The use of this secure
port improves the overall security of information.”
Advantages of DCAM
Although the new application functions similarly
to TCAM, users have found DCAM easier to use. As
a result, more logisticians have joined the electronic
MEDLOG movement on the battlefield. “From the
user perspective, the major difference between using
DCAM and TCAM is navigating through the program,”
said Navy Lieutenant Darryl Green, serving
with the 1st Medical Brigade. “The toolbar has been
changed, making it much easier to use.”
From DCAM’s toolbar, medical logisticians can easily
generate supply requests, create receipts, and monitor
inventory levels. “Many of the customers in Afghanistan
A medical logistics Soldier uses DCAM
to maintain the class VIII inventory.
NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2008