New San Antonio Military Medical Center entry Control point, visitor center opens for business Nov.1

With the Nov. 1 opening of the new visitor’s center at the Interstate 35 entrance to Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston by the San Antonio Military Medical Center, 100 percent of access control operations for the installation will have been implemented.

Visitors accessing SAMMC and other Brooke Army Medical Center functions in the area have been allowed to enter through the entry control points by showing a valid form of state or federal identification, such as a driver’s license, passport and BAMC badges. 

Starting Nov. 1, all visitors with non-Department of Defense  credentials will be required to stop at the visitor center, be proofed and vetted and issued a credential prior to entering the ECP.

Additionally, once visitor center operations begin, the SAMMC Beach ECP will only accept persons possessing DOD-issued credentials. 

These changes are part of Phase IV of the JBSA-Fort Sam Houston Access Control Plan. This final stage included implementing all facets of DOD access control requirements and visitor center operations.  

In January 2014, JBSA-Fort Sam Houston implemented 100 percent access control operations for the main portion of the installation as required by DoD directives. 

Phase IV of the plan will bring the BAMC Campus (I-35 and Beach entry control points ECPs) into compliance. The target date for full operations at the new visitor center is Nov. 9.

BAMC is one of the nation’s largest military medical facilities, offering medical care for service members, family members, veterans and non-DOD civilians and also serves as the premier medical readiness training platform for the Army and Air Force. It is also the only DOD Level I trauma center and receives more than 80,000 emergency room visits annually.

As a result of their unique mission, specific procedures will ensure quality and accessibility of patient care, as well as, maintaining compliance with DOD installation access guidelines.