Madigan Brings Occupational Health Services to Yakima Training Center, Aims to Reduce Travel By 90%
YAKIMA TRAINING CENTER, Wash. — Madigan Army Medical Center brought occupational health services directly to civilian employees at Yakima Training Center Sept. 8-9, 2026, helping firefighters, police officers and other personnel complete required examinations without traveling to Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
The two-day clinic provided mandatory face-to-face occupational health qualification examinations as part of a new approach designed to improve access, reduce time away from work and support workforce readiness.
Historically, more than 200 YTC personnel traveled to JBLM at least once a year for occupational health services, with some making multiple trips. Madigan’s occupational health team aims to reduce those trips by 90% through recurring on-site clinics, limiting travel over the mountain pass and allowing employees to spend more time supporting their missions.
“Bringing occupational health services directly to Yakima Training Center marks a significant step forward in supporting our civilian workforce,” said U.S. Army Col. Brandon Gardner, chief of occupational medicine at Madigan. “By conducting these on-site examinations, we’re eliminating unnecessary travel, reducing lost duty time, and ensuring our YTC personnel remain fully mission-ready. This is exactly the kind of innovative support our civilian team deserves.”
The seven-person team included a physician, two physician assistants, two registered nurses, an administrative staff member and an audiologist. Together, they delivered services ranging from vision and hearing screenings to physical examinations and return-to-duty evaluations.
Multi-stakeholder pre-planning across Madigan, including resource management, logistics, and the Department of Public Health occurred for months prior to execution to ensure mission success. Madigan occupational health staff conducted a site visit with YTC’s command team to assess available space and resources, develop a clinic layout and coordinate equipment and network access. Employees received paperwork in advance, and the public health team coordinated with a contractor to arrange laboratory testing before scheduled appointments.
During the clinic, employees moved through administrative check-in, nursing assessments and provider examinations. Nurses collected vital signs, measured height and weight, performed vision screening and spirometry, and reviewed paperwork.
Providers reviewed available laboratory results and medical documentation, conducted physical examinations and made qualification determinations. An audiologist performed hearing testing, while Gardner completed return-to-duty evaluations and work-related profiles as needed.
The team also sent compliance memorandums to supervisors to support annual occupational health requirements. “We are always mission ready. This is what we do — we ensure the safety of our employees so that they can meet the mission,” said Dashawn Robinson, occupational health administrator.
The visit also identified opportunities to strengthen future clinics. Limited and inconsistent network connectivity required staff to complete encounter documentation in MHS GENESIS after returning to JBLM. The team entered supporting documents into patient medical records and continued tracking outstanding laboratory results.
For future visits, Madigan and YTC plan to improve network access, expand available screening equipment, ensure a suitable examination table is available and establish a more reliable process for receiving laboratory results. Those improvements are intended to streamline patient flow and allow more documentation to be completed during appointments.
Madigan plans to provide on-site occupational and public health services at YTC two to four times each year, refining the process and services with each visit. The recurring clinics will continue to reduce risk and bring required care closer to the civilian employees whose work supports the installation’s daily operations and training mission.
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
