New Womack commander talks COVID-19, partnerships and new medical record system

For the past two months, Col. David Zinnante has acclimated to his new position helping to oversee the healthcare of thousands of service members, veterans and their family members at the Army’s most populated installation.

Zinnante assumed command of Womack Army Medical Center on July 6.  

Originally from Texas, Zinnante came from a pharmacist family and gravitated toward the medical field.

Fort Bragg, he said, was one of his early assignments where he spent his lieutenant and captain years with the 82nd Airborne Division.

“I’m hopeful that I can pay back some of the service to the community that served me so well while I was here,” Zinnante said Monday. “To come back to one of the best communities — I mean what an honor.”

Pandemic and viruses

While the state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic has lifted,Zinnante said that does not mean the virus has gone away.

However, he said, cases at Fort Bragg are milder because of “the high percentage of the population who are vaccinated.”

“For those that are being hospitalized, it’s generally because they have other comorbidity bringing them here,” he said. “Probably 90% of the cases that we’re getting, the positive cases that we’re getting, it’s because we’re testing them for some other sort of procedure that we’re doing here. People are really presenting now with mild symptoms or don’t even know they have it at all.”

Decline in cases:Fort Bragg sees decline in COVID-19 cases

Though there have been confirmed cases of the monkeypox virus in Cumberland and Harnett counties, Zinnante said Womack providers are equipped to handle the virus and that most patients can recover from the rash or fever at home.

A concern, he said, is flu season. The past few years, Zinnante said, cases may have seemed lower because more people were wearing masks.

He said he expects flu vaccines to arrive at Fort Bragg by the beginning of next work next week but recommended that if the local community can find flu vaccines sooner elsewhere, now is the time to be ahead of the flu virus.

New medical record system

Prior to Zinnante’s arrival at Fort Bragg, Womack Army Medical Center started shifting to an electronic medical record system known as Military Health System Genesis.

“The true delay is when an individual comes for their first visit under MHS Genesis the providers are really taking information from the legacy system and having to pull it over into the new system, and that takes time,” he said. “So that’s making all the appointments last a little bit longer.”

Zinnante said providers accounted for the transition, meaning that they’re seeing about five fewer patients a day.  By the second or third visit after the records are put into the new system, he said, patient visits should be quicker.

The system, Zinnante said, is designed to be a central system for records with the goal that it’ll eventually link into the Department of Veterans Affairs system to expedite processes like disability ratings for soldiers who are retiring.

Previous coverage:Womack Army Medical Center to update medical record system: What that means for Fort Bragg

Zinnante said the new system is only part of the reason why patients might see delays in scheduling appointments.

“I think the bigger problem is the hiring,” he said. “We are really short-staffed and doing our best to meet the demands of the community based on a staff that’s been through covid for the past few years and is working really hard to keep up with the demand here on Fort Bragg.”

Zinnante said medical provider shortages are not exclusive to Fort Bragg, as the nation and local community grapples with finding health care providers, nurses and administrators.

Despite delays, he said, some patients are finding that they can book appointments sooner at Womack than they can in the local community.

The hospital is also embracing telehealth for behavioral health or lower-acuity cases and is in the process of working with Fort Sam Houston in Texas, which he said is the “Army’s telehealth center.”

“We’re looking at developing that right now, and so we anticipate having that capability in the next three months if not sooner,” Zinnante said. “The biggest thing is finding a provider dedicated to Fort Bragg, even if they’re not located here.”

Zinnante said administrators are also working to shift resources to focus on the military medical center’s call center.

Partnerships

Zinnante said Womack continues to maintain relationships with the VA, Cape Fear Valley Health and the University of North Carolina Health.

Some of the providers at Womack are also providers at Cape Fear, and Womack surgeons are capable of providing surgeries for the VA.

He said a dialysis unit is being built in partnership with the VA to “address the shortage of dialysis in the community.”

“And it’s to help us get to a level II trauma center, and it also helps with our graduate-level medical education and allowing them to get a little higher acuity of the complexity of patient care,” Zinnante said.

While Zinnante said Womack’s researchers are engaged in 50 studies that include reducing lower back pain, hazing prevention or wearing sensors to predict and prevent injury, Womack Army Medical Center is also engaged in a pilot program to treat trauma patients in the local community.

If a non-Department of Defense beneficiary is injured close to Fort Bragg’s gates, he said, the patient could be brought to Womack if it is the closest trauma center.

He said he expects the program to continue for a couple of years before senior leaders weigh the pros and cons to determine if it’s a benefit to the community and post-graduate medical residency students or seasoned surgeons.

“Overall, we have a dedicated team here, and that’s what makes me so proud to be part of it,” Zinnante said.

Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: New Womack Army Medical Center commander on healthcare at Bragg