‘MISSION ZERO Act’ will benefit service members, hospitals, patients

U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga. reintroduced bipartisan legislation that would provide grants to civilian hospitals that hire active duty military personnel to help improve trauma response.

The Military Injury Surgical Systems Integrated Operationally Nationwide to Achieve ZERO Preventable Deaths Act, called the MISSION ZERO Act for short, S.1022, would assign U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) trauma surgeons to levels I, II and III civilian trauma centers to help fill a gap in care examined by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. The legislation also will address variations in care methods that exist while providing military surgeons with additional training.

“Acute care at trauma centers nationwide will greatly benefit from increased access to the highly qualified, can-do medical professionals in our military,” said Isakson, who serves as chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. “Integrating our nation’s best trauma centers with military doctors who regularly operate in high-pressure situations will greatly benefit Americans.”

“This collaboration is a win-win no matter which way you look at it,” said Dr. Peter Rhee, chief of acute care surgery and medical director of Grady Hospital’s Marcus Trauma Center. “It makes sense in every way, and it helps our military and our country. Grady Memorial Hospital is one of the nation’s busiest trauma centers, and we have the means to make this work right.”

Currently, trauma care in the United States is a patchwork of regional systems and incomplete data registries. Mortality and disability in traumatic injury can be greatly reduced by placing military doctors alongside civilian doctors between periods of active combat.

The MISSION ZERO Act is endorsed by the American Congress of Neurological Surgeons, Trauma Care Association of America, American College of Emergency Physicians, and the American College of Surgeons.

The legislation also creates the Military and Civilian Partnership for Trauma Readiness Grant Program, which would bill would develop two grant programs, where recipients of each must also allow providers to be deployed by DoD for military operations, training or in response to a mass casualty incident.

•         Grants awarded to at most 20 eligible high acuity trauma centers to allow military trauma teams to provide full-time trauma care and related acute care at such centers:

o   Grant shall be for between three and five fiscal years, and may be renewed; and

o   Grant shall be no more than $1 million.

•         Grants awarded to eligible trauma centers to allow military trauma care providers to provide trauma care and related acute care at such centers:

o   Grant shall be for a period of between one and three years; and

o   Grant shall not exceed $100,000 for each military trauma physician, and not exceed $50,000 for each other trauma care provider.

Additionally, recipient trauma centers must report to the secretaries of U.S. Health and Human Services secretary and DoD on relevant grant information, including number of cases, financial impact, educational impact, research conducted and other information. In turn, the secretaries must report to Congress every two years regarding the effectiveness of this program.

In addition to Isakson, the legislation was introduced by U.S. Senators John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill. Companion legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Reps. Michael C. Burgess, M.D., R-Texas, Kathy Castor, D-Fla., Gene Green, D-Texas, Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Richard Hudson, R-N.C.

Isakson previously introduced this legislation in 2016, during the 114th Congress.