A Study of the Civilian-Military Contingency Hospital System (CMCHS) at Keeler Army Community Hospital, West Point, New York - 1980

In 1980 the Department of Defense established the Civilian-Military Contingency Hospital System CMCHS in an attempt to solicit the cooperation of civilian hospitals for meeting the nations medical requirements during a short term conventional war or nationally declared emergency. This systems development stemmed from an extensive two year study of what the Department of Defenses capability would be for providing medical support for the United States military forces given the current peacetime configuration of the medical departments for the three services.

Recent accounts of armed conflict indicated that time for upgrading of the existing configuration would be practically non- existent. The exorbitant expense of enlarging the current system to meet the potential need, matched with the inefficient utilization of health care resources by having that enlarged system stand idle, required another alternative to be examined CMCHS was that alternative. Following the data acquisition phase of the research effort, analysis of common variables exhibited in successful programs will be evaluated by use of a non-parametric, alternative to the Chi-Square Test of Independence, known as, Fishers Exact Test. Keywords Military theses Health care facilities Military medicine Medical services Disasters Wars.