Brigadier General Mary Krueger, chief of the U.S. Army Medical Corps, Medical Readiness Command East, recently visited Cooper University Health Care to meet with leadership from Cooper’s Division of Military, Diplomatic, and Field Surgical Affairs. Cooper operates the busiest trauma center in the Philadelphia-South Jersey region, and its trauma team’s military training programs are the most extensive in the nation.
“We were proud to welcome Brig. Gen. Krueger to Cooper to meet with our team and review the efforts and results of our longstanding civilian-military partnership,” Cooper trauma surgeon Dr. John Chovanes, who also serves as a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves Medical Corps and is the leader of Cooper’s Division of Military, Diplomatic, and Field Surgical Affairs said. “Both the Army and Cooper have benefited from this ongoing relationship by working together, sharing knowledge, and advancing skills.”
Following a review of Cooper’s programs, Krueger observed Cooper’s third Advanced Surgical Skills for Exposure in Trauma course. The target audiences for ASSET courses are surgeons, surgical fellows, and surgical residents. In addition to the Cooper surgical community, the ASSET courses provided trauma skills training to medical students, U.S. Army OR techs, LPNs, EMTs, and Army health care providers assigned to Cooper.
The American College of Surgeons developed the program that is offered at trauma centers and medical schools around the nation. The program was brought to Cooper to expand the training curriculums provided by Cooper’s Military, Diplomatic, and Field Surgical Affairs division for military trainees embedded at Cooper as well as Cooper’s own medical residents, fellows, and students.
“We greatly appreciate the efforts of Cooper University Health Care. I am excited and honored to be here at Cooper,” Krueger said during her visit. “I’m always interested in learning how we can best support our soldiers, and how organizations like Cooper are committed to caring for those who are putting their lives on the line. We thank everyone at Cooper for bringing their talents, dedication, excitement, and energy to serve the U.S. military.”
Cooper serves as the only Level I Trauma Center for all of southern New Jersey and is one of the busiest trauma centers in the region. Due to its high-volume trauma center and expertise in surgery and critical care, Cooper is the only hospital in the United States that has trained elite medical providers from every military branch; multiple local, state, and federal government agencies; and international partners.
