Casualty Evacuation (CASEVAC) Platform Review and Case Series of US Military Enroute Critical Care Team With Contract Personnel Recovery Services in an Austere Environment

In a rapidly changing operational environment, in which there has been an emphasis on prolonged field care and limited evacuation platforms, military providers must practice to the full scope of their training to maximize outcomes. In addition to pushing military providers further into combat zones, the Department of Defense has relied on contracted personnel to help treat and evacuate servicemembers. This article is a retrospective review on the interoperability of the expeditionary resuscitative surgical team (ERST) and a contracted personnel recovery (CPR) team in a far-forward austere environment and will discuss actual patient transport case reviews that used multiple evacuation platforms across thousands of miles of terrain. To effectively incorporate CPR personnel into a military transport team model, we recommend including cross-training on equipment and formularies, familiarization with CPR evacuation platforms, and mass casualty (MASCAL) exercises that incorporate the different platforms available.