173rd Medical readiness highest in Nation

  • Published
  • By Col. P. Eric Swanson
  • 173rd Medical Group Commander
KINGSLEY FIELD, Ore. -- Military member are required to complete certain medical requirements each year in order to ensure readiness for war. Individual Medical Readiness, otherwise known as IMR, consists of the following items: preventative health assessment (PHA), laboratory tests, immunizations, dental exams, profiles, and medical equipment, such as gas mask inserts.

Assessing IMR is a continuous process and must be monitored and reported on a regular basis to provide service leaders and operational commanders the ability to ensure a healthy and fit fighting force ready to deploy.

Kingsley Field has led the way in the implementation of the Individual Medical Readiness (IMR) program. The IMR report submitted by the "Land of No Slack" in June of 2013 (90.3-percent) was the highest in the Department of Defense (DOD).

Who do we recognize for this outstanding achievement? For starters, we should give all of us a pat on the back for making IMR a high priority. But we also need to thank Wing leadership for supporting the IMR program by ensuring the appropriate personnel are available to visit Medical Group staff during UTA and non-UTA hours. Ensuring that these individuals attend to their IMR responsibilities is a major key to program success.

So you are asking yourself, what's so hard about getting a 90.3-percent rating? Where I went to school a 90.3-percent did not even get you a B+ from an Instructor. That's because an individual Airman must be "good to go" (green) in all six areas of IMR to be considered green. For example, any deficiency in one area (red) and green in the remaining five areas results in an overall red which counts against the overall Wing IMR statistic. Total percentages in each area don't add up in normal math to give you an overall IMR. Currently the Air National Guard IMR rating is 82.3-percent, which is considered excellent.

If you have any questions regarding your IMR status, the Air Force has created a way military members can access their medical readiness requirements, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This link will give members direct access to the pre-deployment health assessment Form 2795, the new deployment resiliency assessment (DRA) and the post-deployment health re-assessment (PDHRA) form. In addition, commanders, unit deployment managers and unit health managers can use this same portal link to navigate to unit level IMR status, unit reports and obtain information on their personnel.

In order to access individual information, follow the steps below:
1. Log onto the Air Force Portal.
2. Under "Featured Links," select "Fitness & Health."
3. Then select "Medical Readiness - Deployment Health."
4. Next, the screen will display the ASIMS Web DoD Notice and Consent page. Read and click "ok."
5. The top box is for the individual member. "My Individual Medical Readiness Status" is the first link.

Once again, I want to thank all of you that have contributed to the success of the IMR program.