Keeping in Touch Far From Home

Imagine being far from home, in the middle of a war, knowing that a loved one is sick and in the hospital and not knowing how things are going.

Upon learning that one of our local Maine National Guard units, C Company, the 1/126^th Aviation Regiment (formerly known as the 112^th Medical Company (Air Ambulance)), is being re-deployed to Iraq in January, 2008, the EMMC/EMHS leadership has come up with a unique idea that will support our friends and neighbors during their difficult and stressful time. Due to the various issues of being in a war zone, it is very difficult and frequently quite expensive for a soldier to get accurate and timely information should a family member be hospitalized during their deployment.

In the event that a soldier’s loved one is hospitalized while he or she is overseas, the soldier will be able to call a dedicated toll-free number, called the Military Hotline, which will be answered at the EMMC switchboard. The switchboard operator will determine the location of the patient and then connect the caller to either the EMMC nursing unit or to another hospital in the EMHS family – depending on where the patient is. The operator will identify the call as coming from the Military Hotline when they first contact the unit. The solider will then be able to speak directly to the family member’s nurse or, in the event that the nurse is unavailable, to the charge nurse. Typically these soldiers have very limited access to a telephone, and significant time constraints on their phone calls. It is our intention that these calls, once identified as a Military Hotline call, will receive prompt attention. 

Every day throughout our system the nursing units answer many, many calls from family members, and each and every call is treated with respect. By letting staff know in advance of the unusual circumstances surrounding calls from our service men and women, the EMHS staff will provide our soldiers a service that acknowledges their constraints and expedites our response to them.

            We certainly hope that none of our soldiers ever need to use this service. Experience suggests, however, that a few of them will have a family member hospitalized during the time they are away. The stress of having a family member ill is bad enough without multiplying it with the miles and stresses of being in a combat zone. We are proud to be able to offer this program and to offer our deployed National Guard members and their families the comfort of knowing that should they need us, we’ll be there.