Optimal integration, case mix, patient acuity and trauma exposure had not been examined for Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills (C-STARS) cadre embedded at University of Cincinnati Medical Center until the initiation of this work. It has been unclear how deployment cycles, AF duties, and clinical workload impact each other; this makes current AF staffing models suboptimal and does not allow for a data-driven growth projection staffing model if, for example, more CCAT teams were quickly needed for future conflicts. Granular data on patient acuity, patient volume, clinical workload, aspects of workload relevant to deployment, and CMRP requirements captured for all AF personnel embedded at UCMC, as well as for a cohort of similar civilian counterparts within UCMC for comparison, will continue to be collected and analyzed. This analysis will enable local C-STARS and USAF School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM) leadership to (1) evaluate AF personnel deployment readiness, (2) quantify the degree of integration that the AF cadre have within the UCMC system, and (3) provide the scaffolding to create future data-driven staffing models. This novel infrastructure could then be deployed to the other C-STARS and Sustained Medical and Readiness Trained (SMART) program sites and the data capture requirements could be codified within future military-civilian partnership TAAs. Finally, the metrics captured will continue to inform the MHS registry, currently under development, for purposes of tracking the effectiveness of military-civilian partnerships.
