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Branch Hospital. A health treatment facility that provides limited inpatient and outpatient care and is established at the discretion of the COMNAVMEDCOM, based on the size and dispersion of the patient population, health care resources available, and specialty requirements.
Branch Clinics. A small health treatment facility that provides any general primary outpatient care, and is established at the discretion of the COMNAVMEDCOM, based on the size and dispersion of the patient population, health care resources available, and specialty requirements.
Dental Clinic. Provides comprehensive outpatient dental care services to Navy and Marine Corps units of the operating forces, shore activities, and other authorized beneficiaries. Exercises command and control over the operation of subordinate dental care facilities (i.e., Branch Dental Recruit Clinic, Branch Dental Clinic, and Area Dental Laboratory).
To differentiate between the various administrative types of hospitals, clinics, branches, and annexes, the following titles are used:
Naval Hospital (location), for a hospital that is an established shore (field) activity with a CO, under the command of the COMNAVMEDCOM.
Naval Medical Clinic or Dental Clinic (location), for a clinic assigned as an established shore (field) activity with a CO, under the command of the COMNAVMEDCOM.
The titles of activities located outside of the United States are preceded by the abbreviation U S.
Nonfixed Medical Treatment Facilities
Medical facilities for field service with the Marine Corps, such as aid stations, clearing stations, and division field and force evacuation hospitals.
Medical facilities afloat, such as hospital ships, and sick bays aboard a ship. (Currently there are no hospital ships in the active fleet.)
The medical advance base functional components are units (medical and other) that are prepositioned units or mobile units such as fleet hospitals, casualty staging units, triage units, and so forth.
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT SUPPORT TO THE FLEET MARINE FORCE (FMF)
To understand the complexity of medical support to FMF, you must first be familiar with its overall organization.
FMF is a balanced force of combined air and ground troops trained, organized, and equipped primarily for offensive amphibious deployment. It may consist of a headquarters, force troops, a force service support group (FSSG), one or more Marine divisions, brigades, and aircraft wings. Each of these units is assigned a specific number of medical support personnel, providing an interrelated network of medical support.
FMF Medical Support
In general, Medical Department personnel serving with FMF may be divided into:
Combat personnel, who provide medical and initial first aid to prepare the casualty for further evacuation
Support personnel, who provide surgical and medical aid to those who need early definitive care and cannot be further evacuated
Medical personnel are an integral part of the combat unit to which they are assigned; they train with their units and live with and accompany them at all times.
All of the units comprising a FMF have Medical Department personnel organic to them. However, the majority of medical support comes from the medical battalion of FSSG. FSSG is a composite grouping of functional units that provide combat service support beyond the organic capability of the supported units to all elements of FMF.
The medical battalion provides combat medical support required for independently deployed battalion landing teams, regimental landing teams, Marine amphibious units, or