The ship’s departure brings to a close a dramatic naval mission launched three days after the Haitian earthquake Jan. 12, when the ship’s crew ended scheduled maintenance midway and set sail to provide medical relief to a nation whose hospitals and clinics lay in ruins.

From Jan. 19 to Feb. 27, doctors treated nearly 1,000 patients, performed 843 surgeries, carried out 37 amputations, repaired dozens of bone fractures and delivered nine babies, says Capt. James Ware, the ship’s commanding officer. By late February, Ware says in an e-mail, the Haitian government began working with the Pan American Health Organization and other groups to improve the medical care on shore “with the ambition of building back to pre-earthquake medical levels.”

White House spokesman Tommy Vietor says the time has come to call the Comfort home. “The doctors on the USNS Comfort did a heroic job treating patients following the earthquake in Haiti and provided essential short-term support, but the Comfort is not a long-term solution,” he says.

President Obama will meet with Haitian President Rene Preval today to discuss the relief effort, Vietor says.

But doctors still grappling with those who suffered injuries and infections say Haiti has a long way to go. “There’s a continuing need for advanced surgical treatment,” says Peter Kelly, director of Sacred Heart Hospital. “The Comfort has been doing a lot of that surgery. Now that they’re pulling out, there’ll be a void that will be have to be met by hospitals in Haiti.”