Future of Military Medicine

[saltwire]

With the way we are pulling out of theater and decreasing residency spots to an increase in HPSP recipients, where do you all think Military Medicine is headed? Provided we don't get into WWIII what do you think is in the future for Military Docs?

I have no idea I am just curious to hear what everyone has to say.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[BOHICA-FIGMO]

With the way we are pulling out of theater and decreasing residency spots to an increase in HPSP recipients, where do you all think Military Medicine is headed? Provided we don't get into WWIII what do you think is in the future for Military Docs?

I have no idea I am just curious to hear what everyone has to say.

I don't know what it means for medical corps ascessions, GME, and career planning. But rest assured, as long as we exist as a country, there will always be bad guys seeking to do us harm, and there will always be a need for good physicians to care for those who protect us from those bad guys.

What does this mean? The politicians will probably make the dumb decision to cut the armed forces (and medical corps) too much. Competition for scholarships and residencies, leadership positions and promotions will increase significantly. A lot of good physicians will get out. Then the **** will eventually hit the fan again....and the cycle repeats..

 

[AF M4]

Not just politicians. The DOD watches in horror as its budget consumed by more and more health care expenses, and rightfully decides that its mission to the American people is not to become a health care organization. Solution? Strip out everything you can that's related to health care, including shutting down military hospitals (along with their GMO programs), start putting restrictions and additional fees onto TriCare, and try to shift as much of the running and expenses of health care to the VA and civilian sector as possible.

Long-term, the DOD would love to get by with just combat medics and a few docs to do sick call and physicals.

 

[Gastrapathy]

I see a future of an all-reservist purple-suited organization. Stateside medical care abdicated to Kaiser or other HMOs. A few hundred GS stateside primary care types to shuffle paper. The remainder of the medical staff only works when deployed. Get rid of all that infrastructure, AD retirement, GME hassles. Close USUHS and get rid of HPSP. Take volunteers, and if thats not enough for the higher paying specialties, draft doctors. Pay off their loans and pay them big bonuses with a tiny part of the money saved.

BTW, the doctor draft law from the 1950s is still on the books.

OK, thats what I think should happen. What I think will happen is that we will continue to slowly bleed from a thousand cuts, including but by no means limited to:
1. attracting lower quality physicians
2. demanding private practice productivity without providing anywhere near the same support
3. stagnating bonuses/pay
4. 0% retention
5. AHTLA
6. desperate cost-cutting measures (ask NMCP or NMCSD about the current state of contractor physicians) everywhere except inside the beltway
7. The AF passing as much of this work off on the other services (clever, IMO)
8. worse than 0% retention, only retaining doctors who are 1)stuck from long obligations and miserable 2)unable to function in private practice
9. punishing the competent by deploying them over and over again (looking at you NavyFP)
ok, i'll stop there because this is becoming my own "reasons" thread and I don't want to compete with that classic.

And, where that will leave us...I don't know but I do know I won't be there to see it by the time it comes crashing down. We'll keep the deck chairs moving for a little while longer.

 

[BravoZulu]

With the way we are pulling out of theater and decreasing residency spots to an increase in HPSP recipients, where do you all think Military Medicine is headed? Provided we don't get into WWIII what do you think is in the future for Military Docs?

I have no idea I am just curious to hear what everyone has to say.

Fewer conflicts will mean downsizing and fewer active duty doctors and nurses needed.

That's okay. Military medicine was never meant to be a growth industry where those involved wish for war to stay in business.

 

[a1qwerty55]

I think you've hit the nail on the head. We will get cut, and with a really poor General Corps - now comprised increasingly of nurses and other nonphysicians - life for the doctor will get increasingly untenable (they'll still want to hit the metrics but not do anything do support us in getting there). We will be back to where we were in the 80's and early 90's, running out of essential medical items and losing every non-indentured physician to the civilian sector which will also be hurting but won't be as affected as the military.

 

[IgD]

What is that saying, "200 years of tradition unimpeded by progress"? Part of me doesn't think anything will change. The system will continue as is for the next 200 years. The other part of me thinks things will improve. How much lower can it go? Eventually AHLTA will be replaced or fixed and things will change.

 

[AF M4]

What is that saying, "200 years of tradition unimpeded by progress"? Part of me doesn't think anything will change. The system will continue as is for the next 200 years. The other part of me thinks things will improve. How much lower can it go? Eventually AHLTA will be replaced or fixed and things will change.

Bureaucracy dies like the heat death of the universe. Eventually they grow so big that the important parts are so far apart that they can no longer affect each other and generate warmth. Then everything slowly withers to ember, then to black.

Then Galactus detonates a nuclear bomb or something and everything starts anew. I went to a Catholic high school, not big on physics.