The David Grant USAF Medical Center (DGMC) at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, is the United States Air Force's largest medical center in the continental United States and serves military beneficiaries throughout eight western states. It is a fully accredited hospital with a National Quality Approval gold seal by the Joint Commission, and serves more than 500,000 Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care System eligible beneficiaries in the immediate San Francisco–Sacramento vicinity from 17 counties covering 40,000 square miles. Originally known as Travis Air Force Base Hospital, DGMC was renamed in 1966 in honor of David Norvell Walker Grant, the first Surgeon General of the United States Army Air Corps and United States Army Air Forces.
History
1943–1949 The medical center first opened its doors to patients on 1 July 1943 as the 4167th Station Hospital at Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Field. Hospital buildings were of cantonment-type construction, housing seven wards with a total capacity of 125 beds. Two wards were allocated for medical service, one for convalescent patients and one for a crash ward temporarily doubling as a redistribution point of supply. The remaining ward was used for examinations, briefings and medical clearance.
The first minor operation was performed in the hospital on 26 July 1943. Prior to this, all surgery was performed at Hamilton Field near San Francisco. The first major operation for acute appendicitis was successfully performed on 6 August 1943.
In 1945 Congress approved the construction of a 670-bed Aerial Debarkation Hospital and the reconstruction of the 150-bed Station Hospital, and the project was immediately begun in June. The designs for the Aerial Debarkation Hospital called for seven wards, six of 100 beds. The seventh, for 70 beds, would be for mental health patients. The wards would accommodate eight patients in each room. A two-story Base Hospital would consist of four wards with a capacity of 150 beds.
After V-J Day, the primary mission of Fairfield-Suisun became the processing of returned troops for redeployment and transfer to separation centers. The mission of the AAF Station Hospital was to provide medical care for the station complement and transient personnel, and to perform routine examinations prior to the transfer to separation centers. With the cessation of hostilities with Japan, the construction of the holding station and hospital ceased. The floor of the tunnel and 80 percent of the footings had been poured. One long wall and several wing walls of concrete had been poured to first floor level and the area had been rough graded. Whatever work had been completed on the foundation was subsequently torn out.
The mission needs of Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Field had to be reevaluated as the west coast base from which the Air Transportation Command would conduct its foreign commitment. When this was completed in favor of maintaining the base, additional funds were allocated on 25 March 1946 to complete construction of projects at the base, among which was the hospital.
Excavation work for the 150-bed Station Hospital was started on 17 March 1947 after many revisions of plans. To allow the temporary hospital to continue its functions and, at the same time to clear the site for the new Air Freight Terminal and apron, a few of the existing hospital buildings were salvaged. Services continued in cramped quarters. The Stolte Incorporated had the contract for erecting the hospital building and Morrison-Knudsen Company, Inc., handled the landscaping and roads around the hospital.
As the transition to separate the Air Force from the U.S. Army began in 1947, all Station Hospital personnel were assigned to the newly designated 8th Medical Group (provisional). It consisted of two squadrons: the 81st Medical Squadron (provisional), composed of all medical department duty personnel, and the 82nd Medical Squadron (provisional), composed entirely of hospital patients.
On 1 Jun 1948 at the recently redesignated Fairfield Suisun AFB, the 8th Medical Group was redesignated 530th Medical Services Squadron, 530th Air Transport Wing. Just a few months later on 1 Oct 1948, the 530th Medical Services Squadron was redesignated 1501st Medical Services Squadron.
On 2 May 1949, the Strategic Air Command (SAC) took over the jurisdiction of Fairfield-Suisun AFB, with the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing activated. One of its components was the 9th Medical Group, whose mission was to run the hospital. In addition to providing the usual care for base and attached personnel, the hospital serviced personnel passing through the separation center and took care of air evacuation patients.
On 20 May 1949, the hospital moved into its new permanent installation, known to the locals as "The Hospital on the Hill." A total of 148 people were assigned: 24 officers, 10 nurses, 72 enlisted men, and 42 civilian personnel.
On 5 Nov 1949, the 5th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing was attached to the 9th Wing. The hospital functioned under two medical groups: the 9th and the 5th—but was under the command jurisdiction of the 9th.
1950–1959 A Physical Evaluation Board was established on 1 June 1950, and the hospital was designated as a center for Air Force patients requiring general surgical and medical care. As the only aerial debarkation hospital on the west coast, the facility was modified during the 1950s as the newly renamed Travis AFB. As a result of the Korean War, all patients evacuated by air from Pacific bases debarked at Travis. Facilities had to be expanded to meet new needs. In August 1950, the hospital airmen's barracks were converted into a hospital annex, with 118 additional beds. The total number of patients evacuated by air during the month was 1304, in comparison to 514 for the previous month. Just four months later in December 1950, the hospital reached a peak of 5,475 patients received by air evacuation.
When the 9th Bombardment Wing, including the 9th Medical Group, moved from Travis AFB to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho on 1 May 1953, the 5th Medical Group took over the hospital at Travis.
After the Armistice in Korea became effective, the first group of American prisoners of war, from the mass exchange of prisoners with the Communists, arrived at Travis on 12 August 1953. On 12 Feb 1954, the 5th Medical Group was inactivated. The 5th Tactical Hospital and the 4167th USAF Hospital were activated and both assigned to the 5th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing. Their mission to staff the hospital remained unchanged until 1 Apr 1954, when the 4167th was relieved from assignment to the 5th Wing and reassigned directly to the 14th Air Division (5th Air Base Group, 14th Air Division, Fifteenth Air Force, Strategic Air Command).
On 30 Jun 1954, the first planeload from war in Indo-China, consisting of 16 litters and 31 ambulatory French patients, arrived at the Travis hospital. The French Naval attaché of the West Coast, the manager of the French newspaper, and the French consul general visited the French patients.
On 1 July 1958, the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) resumed command of Travis AFB from Strategic Air Command (later redesignated as Military Airlift Command on 1 January 1966).
1960–1969
Additional construction to USAF Hospital Travis was completed in 1961, which included conversion of the former nurses’ quarters to a casualty staging facility. Temporary conversion of a transient airmen's dormitory in 1965 enabled the hospital to reach 650 beds. With the growing conflict in Southeast Asia after the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1965, USAF Hospital Travis became the central receiving medical facility for aeromedical evacuation of soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen wounded during the Vietnam War.
On 1 July 1966, the USAF Hospital at Travis AFB was designated David Grant USAF Medical Center in honor of the late Major General (Dr.) David Norvell Walker Grant, USAAF, MC (1891–1964), the first Surgeon General of the Army Air Corps and U.S. Army Air Forces. The medical center was a wing-equivalent as well as a tenant on Travis AFB.
Postgraduate educational programs were implemented at DGMC in 1966 when planning began for five residency programs. The Air Force and Medical Service Accreditation Committee for Graduate Medical Education gave provisional approval to start the general surgery, pediatrics, obstetrical/gynecological, internal medicine, and radiology residency programs with a start date of 1 July 1967. Other programs offered at DGMC included physician assistant in orthopedics, pharmacy practice, nurse anesthesia, and administrative residency.
Residency programs with the local communities: In addition to training active duty officers, DGMC partners with the local community and reserve forces to provide training. DGMC has active affiliations with UC Davis School of Medicine, UC San Francisco, University of the Pacific, Solano Community College and a number of the other local training institutions. General Dentistry and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery postgraduate education programs were added in 1969.
On 1 July 1969, USAF implemented a new medical system dividing CONUS into six geographical areas, each composed of one large AF medical facility designated as a Medical Center and smaller referral hospitals designated regional hospitals. DGMC became the Medical Center for 24 other active AF installations, including three regional hospitals in a nine-state area. DGMC also received referral patients from the Pacific area and cared for transient patients at the Second Aeromedical Staging Flight, an assigned unit.
1970–1979 In 1978, the family practice postgraduate educational program and transitional year residency programs were initiated. It has long been one of the premier family practice residency programs in the Air Force and the nation. Today the accredited program trains 42 residents a year (14-14-14) in a variety of inpatient and outpatient settings. Residents train both in the Family Practice Clinic and on other specialty rotations, as well as other designated training sites. Consultation services are available with board certified individuals in all departments. In the first year of training, the program emphasizes inpatient management of medical problems, largely through rotations on a variety of specialty services. In the second year, inpatient skills are refined and greater exposure to outpatient clinics is provided. During the third year, the emphasis is within the model family practice unit, integrating acquired knowledge into the total primary health care of families.
The transitional internship at DGMC is a 12-month program with four interns selected per year from a large group of applicants for a flexible and broad clinical experience. It is fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). The transitional internship is designed to fulfill the educational goals of medical school graduates.
1980–1989 On 21 October 1988, the medical center moved from “the Hospital on the Hill” to its current location, a state-of-the-art, modern medical center, located on the northwest portion of the base with a separate gate entrance. The former “Hospital on the Hill” is now known as Building 381, home to the Fifteenth Air Force Headquarters and the 60th Mission Support Squadron.
1990–1999 In late 1989, DGMC saw the opening of a Hyperbaric Medicine department. One of the largest clinical hyperbaric chambers in North America, it can hold 18 patients and three inside observers in the main chamber, and up to five patients in either of the other two chambers respectively. Constantly staffed, maintained and fully operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year basis since 1990, it cost approximately $12 million to build.