Bureau of Medicine and Surgery

Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
The logo of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery shows a gold anchor with a coiled snake in the manner of a Rod of Asclepius, superimposed on a map of the globe and a red cross.
Active	1842–present
Country	United States
Branch	Navy
Type	Medical
Size	63,000
Part of	United States Department of the Navy
Commanders
Surgeon General of the Navy	VADM C. Forrest Faison. III

The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) is an agency of the United States Department of the Navy that manages health care activities for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. BUMED operates hospitals and other health care facilities as well as laboratories for biomedical research, and trains and manages the Navy's many staff corps related to medicine. Its headquarters is located at the Defense Health Headquarters in Falls Church, Virginia. BUMED has 63,000 medical personnel and more than a million eligible beneficiaries.

BUMED was one of the original five Navy bureaus formed in 1842 to replace the Board of Navy Commissioners. It is one of two bureaus still in existence. BUMED was housed at the Old Naval Observatory from 1942 until 2012.

In 2005, Navy Medicine aligned its shore facilities into four overarching commands: Navy Medicine East, Navy Medicine West, Navy Medicine National Capital Area, and Navy Medicine Support Command. In 2012, Navy Medicine Support Command was renamed and realigned into the Navy Medicine Education and Training Command, with its non-training units becoming independent under BUMED. Navy Medicine National Capital Area's largest component, the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, was merged in 2011 with Walter Reed Army Medical Center to form the joint Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission. The merged facility came under the jurisdiction of the new Joint Task Force National Capital Region/Medical, and in 2013, Navy Medicine National Capital Area was disestablished, with its few remaining facilities transferred to Navy Medicine East.