Army could close Moncrief hospital at Fort Jackson

The U.S. Army may close Moncrief Army Community Hospital at Fort Jackson, according to Maj. Gen. Bradley Becker, the fort’s commander.

Becker said that the Army medical command contacted him this week and told him that it is considering closing the hospital or drastically cutting back service at the facility, which is the main health care provider for the 72,000 soldiers who are trained there each year and the fort’s 7,000 military and civilian employees. The State reported a year ago that Moncrief had roughly 700 employees.

Medical care for the recruits would be transferred to local hospitals, the general said. Each recruit would be required to be accompanied to off-base hospitals by two drill sergeants, according to Army regulations.

“That would be good for the hospitals,” Becker told The State. “But it would cause me staffing issues. And of course there is the loss of jobs.”

Becker said he expected to be briefed further by medical command next week. Efforts to reach a spokesman for Moncrief were unsuccessful.

In addition to serving Fort Jackson soldiers, Dorn VA Medical Center, just a few miles away, has turned to Moncrief as a pressure relief valve when services are backed up at Dorn. For instance, when Dorn had to shut down its operating rooms because of a ventilation problem this year, some of the cases were shifted to Moncrief.

Becker made the announcement Friday during a commanders meeting of the S.C. Military Base Task Force, which is appointed by Gov. Nikki Haley to protect and enhance missions in the state’s four military communities: Columbia, Sumter, Charleston and Beaufort.

Haley attended the meeting and received briefings from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, National Guard, Army Reserve and Coast Guard.

“I work for you,” she told the commanders.

The military pumps nearly $16 billion into the South Carolina economy each year. But that figure could take a big hit as the U.S. military draws down after the ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

All of the commanders addressed how they might be affected by not only cuts due to the drawdown, but deeper reductions that will result from mandated budget cuts approved by Congress during the 2010 debt ceiling fight – called the sequester.

Already, the Army has asked Becker to report on the consequences of cutting nearly half of the fort’s 7,000 employee, about half military and half civilian. The Moncrief staff has the highest number of civilian workers at the installation.

Earlier in the week Becker told The State that the number of new soldiers trained at Fort Jackson, the nation’s largest basic training installation, would drop to about 17,000 a year from 45,000 if worst-case staffing cuts go forward.

Another 27,000 soldiers receiving advanced training in tenant missions such as the drill sergeant school and the chaplains school would also be heavily affected, Becker said.

The sequester would force the Army to shrink to 420,000 soldiers in 2019 from 518,000 today, Becker said. That would make it impossible for the Army to meet the nation’s strategic goal of winning a war in one theater while holding an enemy at bay in another, he said.

Haley said she would personally go to Washington to rally the state’s delegation against the sequester and to speak against it.

“I will be there,” she said. “And I will be loud.”

This story was originally published October 3, 2014 at 11:33 PM with the headline "Army could close Moncrief hospital at Fort Jackson."