Forced Extinction of GMO's/Flight Surgeons?

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island doc

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I thought you all just might be interested to hear that at long last a forced extinction of the military GMO and one-year-wonder flight surgeon, might just be in its infancy.

I say this because, in speaking with a physician member of one of the US State Medical Licensing Boards today on this very subject, he informed me that there is at least serious discussion, if not an outright effort underway at the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) to require completion of residency (i.e. Board Eligibility) for medical licensure in the U.S. Increasingly, American health care consumers (the public) is demanding higher standards be demanded of physicians.

Once all 50 states require completion of residency for licensure, the GMO and GMO-Flight Surgeons will fall into the LaBrea Tar Pit and go the way of the dinosaurs where they need to be.

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I thought you all just might be interested to hear that at long last a forced extinction of the military GMO and one-year-wonder flight surgeon, might just be in its infancy.

I say this because, in speaking with a physician member of one of the US State Medical Licensing Boards today on this very subject, he informed me that there is at least serious discussion, if not an outright effort underway at the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) to require completion of residency (i.e. Board Eligibility) for medical licensure in the U.S. Increasingly, American health care consumers (the public) is demanding higher standards be demanded of physicians.

Once all 50 states require completion of residency for licensure, the GMO and GMO-Flight Surgeons will fall into the LaBrea Tar Pit and go the way of the dinosaurs where they need to be.


and as I predicted, any serious change for the better will come from OUTSIDE the chain of command.
 
I was told by a CDR back in 1998 that Congress had passed a resolution that would require the military to do away with GMO's but they had failed to put a time table on when it had to be implemented.

Typical military fashion, they won't do away with GMO's until they are forced.

When they do that, all the newbies won't believe that I spent my entire military obligation as a GMO...

i want out (resignation approved :) )
 
At the rate the Navy is (not) recruiting new HPSP takers, they may well have to do away with GMOs about 5 years from now because the pipeline is dry.

Well said, pgg.

My $0.02 as a residency-trained type: Flight surgeons need to get out of the business of being in charge of patients RONing at hospitals which have residency-trained attendings. Example: FS didn't know her patient had MARAA supraclavicular pain pump (excellent physical exam skills) before she shipped him to ward 2H with the local anesthetic PCA pump placed on the side of his blown-off limb. Example: FS told me during internship to treat patient with antero-lateral-septal MI and in stable V-tach with a huge dose of iv dig. I called the cardiologist on call instead. Ya, maybe just two bad eggs, but, really, if there were attending MAODs (instead of just interns at Andrews), who can argue that the FS would do a better job managing patients on the wards than a general surgeon or internist?

Just a thought...would require military to care more about excellence in patient care than political stroking of folks with wings on their chestal areas, however, so (pun intended) this idea will never fly, I know...

--
R
 
At the rate the Navy is (not) recruiting new HPSP takers, they may well have to do away with GMOs about 5 years from now because the pipeline is dry.

well thanks to rummy, the navy is trying to change all the docs to civilian anyway. i guess in some genius move to turn the active duty healthcare system into another VA system. Hopefully rummy will be long gone before this plan comes to completion though. I'm all four out-sourcing some healthcare. However, if we're going to out-source it, we should just have a health insurance plan and send people out . . . not hire government contractors in VA style hospitals (that idea is almost as bad as the electronic voting machines).
 
So why is the AF implementing a new rule of forcing students to go into a flight surgeon position if they do not match to any military or civilian residency?
 
The AF needs operational docs. You can get specialty and subspecialty care downtown at a civilian hospital. You can't get civilian doctors to willingly be separated from their families and go to hot sandy places for half of the year. This is why the AF needs indentured servant GMOs. As long as you owe them time, you have ZERO leverage over your life. I'll serve my 4 years as a GMO then go back to start civilian residency just as all of my classmates are finishing theirs. I made a bad decision and have to live with the consequences.

Try to find some way to get disqualified and pay for your education with loans. You'll be happier in the long run.
 
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