MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii -- The benefits keep coming for service members and their families aboard MCB Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay. One of the most under-used programs available to them on base may just be one of the most valuable.
The Sports Medicine And Reconditioning Team Clinic here is a program designed to help Marines rehabilitate after injury, recover from surgery, and recondition old joints and muscles to handle the stresses of a military career.
More than just a rehabilitation clinic though, the SMART Clinic offers many things that the military population may be unaware of.
"We do many things besides just physical therapy here," said Navy Lt. Dawn Bowman, physician assistant with the SMART Clinic. "The services most Marines think of when they hear of the SMART Clinic are physical therapy type stuff, something you might need after a serious injury. What they don't realize is that we offer things like running shoe evaluations, to determine exactly what kind of running shoe you should be wearing. We also do rehabilitation for sprained ankles, to strengthen and prevent common reoccurrences.
"Most Marines have some sort of ache, pain or reoccurring neck, back, or joint problem that they just figured would go away and hasn't," said Bowman. "Marines should take advantage of the sports medicine physician and assistants available at the SMART Clinic to find out the cause of the pain so they can be proactive about fixing the problem."
Providing added support to the clinic are several certified physical therapy technicians and on-the-job training corpsmen from other units on base. They work at the clinic to provide help and support for the customers.
"During the six months I'm over here with the SMART Clinic, I will learn a lot of things related to sports injury and medicine that I can bring back to my unit," said Petty Officer 3rd Class Nestor Lazo, an on -the-job training corpsman from 3rd Marine Regiment. "After all, that's what most of the injuries we see over there start out from: football, PT or some other sports activity."
Hawaii is a haven for outdoor sports activities, and Marines are always ready to compete in any competitive sport, so the risk of injury while stationed at MCB Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay, is inherently increased.
With all the high-tech equipment available for use at the SMART Clinic, the specialists there can identify and work to heal certain injuries, while educating patrons on treating their own injuries with other pieces of equipment.
"One of our main goals is to give Marines the tools they need to take care of their own injuries," said Bowman. "We are available for safety stand-downs and local command visits to better educate unit personnel on what we do down here."
To find out if the SMART Clinic can assist with an injury or chronic pain, the normal procedures must be followed in going to medical, but according to Lazo, an indication to the doctor at medical that you would like the SMART Clinic to evaluate your injury should set up an authorized appointment.
The regular hours of the clinic are from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, but to visit the SMART Clinic for an initial evaluation, the hours of acceptance are from 7:30 - 9 a.m., and 1 - 2 p.m. every weekday except Thursdays.
For further information on the SMART Clinic, or to schedule an appointment, call (808) 257-8708.