VA leads Kansas City exercise on receiving wounded service members

The VA Kansas City Healthcare System brought military, federal and community partners together at Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport on Oct. 15, 2026, to practice receiving and coordinating care for wounded service members when wartime demands exceed military medical capacity, the Department of Veterans Affairs said.

According to VA, the patient reception training was part of a multi-day, hybrid, full-scale exercise led by the Kansas City VA and the Veterans Health Administration Office of Emergency Management. It tested command activation, notifications, staffing, communications, patient assessment, staging and tracking during a simulated military contingency. The scenario involved a sustained casualty surge that overwhelmed military medical resources and brought VA toward capacity.

VA said a central objective was integrating Health and Human Services and National Disaster Medical System personnel and the Joint Patient Assessment Tracking System with local tracking processes. Participants included the War Department, Kansas City and Raytown fire departments, Johnson County MED-ACT, the Mid-America Regional Council and several area hospitals.

The department said the exercise supports VA's Fourth Mission, under which it serves as the primary medical backup to the military health system during war or national emergency while maintaining care for veterans. "Medical readiness is a team effort," said exercise director Zack Bradley, a VA area emergency manager.

Source: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Originally published by True News: https://truenews.bagleyenterprises.net/stories/580