Hawaii is gaining a two-star flag officer headquarters and 61 personnel with an Army- wide medical consolidation and strategic realignment that is bringing more oversight to the state because of the U.S. military emphasis on Asia and the Pacific known as the re-balance.

The Pacific Regional Medical Command, which used to be a one-star command and included Tripler Army Medical Center, became Regional Health Command-Pacific and will soon be headed by a two-star general.

The new responsibilities have come about as a result of a U.S. Army Medical Command reorganization from five regional medical commands to four multidisciplinary regional health commands. The Army also created Central, Atlantic and European commands.

Regional Health Command-Pacific expanded its area of responsibility from Medical Activity-Japan, Medical Activity-Korea, Tripler, U.S. Army Health Clinic-Schofield Barracks and the Warrior Transition Battalion Hawaii to also include Madigan Army Medical Center in Washington state, Presidio of Monterey U.S. Army Health Clinic in California and Bassett Army Community Hospital in Alaska, the command said.

Dental and other commands also were added to the Hawaii-based responsibilities. The goal is to be at full operational capability by July 2017.

The extra 61 military and civilian people will filter in over the next two years. The positions come from the former Western Region Medical Command headquartered at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, which lost a two-star position, the Army said.

The western command, which was disbanded in January, previously managed most Army hospitals west of the Mississippi, the News Tribune in Tacoma reported.

Ana Allen, a Health Command Pacific spokeswoman, said a one-star billet remains in place in Washington state as a Regional Health Command-Pacific deputy commander.

HEADING Regional Health Command-Pacific from the Tripler campus is Brig. Gen. Patrick Sargent, who will receive a second star in the coming months, Allen said.

The Army said the Medical Command reorganization would improve “efficiencies and mission command effectiveness” by creating the four regional health commands to provide a stronger alignment with the specific commands they serve, including U.S. Army Pacific at Fort Shafter.

Global health engagements by Army medicine are increasing as part of the reorganization as another tool to strengthen relationships across the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, the Army said.

“The United States government has seven treaties; of those seven, five are with countries from right here in the Pacific,” Sargent said at a “town hall” meeting on the reorganization Feb. 29. “So for us as a medical community, it is important that we be looked at as pivotal players in building diplomacy.”

In 2015 Sargent, a former medical evacuation helicopter pilot and instructor, met with Chinese, Mongolian, Philippine, Bangladeshi, Nepalese, Vietnamese and Malaysian medical leaders, the Army said.