Improving Military Medicine at the unit level.

[DogFaceMedic]

Improving Military Medicine at the unit level:

As long as there is the USA, there will need to be a military, which requires medicine. So, hoping military medicine fails and no one joins is unrealistic and unhelpful vitriol.

For those with experience, share some ideas on how to overcome the bureaucrats both at the level we operate everyday – as well as the larger policy level.

No whining; it undermines credibility and demonstrates the absence of a spine.

There are ways to succeed in military medicine and combat the mindless and evil bureaucrats that infest every large organization in world history. I still like to serve both my nation and all those great Americans that enlisted and whom the elitists view as low-class.

First, if you are the MD/DO you have a lot of power. Don’t accept the dictates of clip board nurses or former MD admin types. Do what you think is right and show some backbone.

Resentment at the corrupt and incompetent can easily lead to self-defeating, self-pity. Which is their ally. Find solutions.

If you are that upset about something, call the IG or your congressman. I’ve done it and it works. But, you better have some solutions to offer or evidence of their incompetence; otherwise you will be ignored as a whiner.

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[pgg]

Heh, way to set up a thread for a rehash of the same old pro/anti griping.

No whining; it undermines credibility and demonstrates the absence of a spine.

Starting your thread off with a veiled barb aimed at readers of this group who honorably served their time and got out probably isn't the best way to spark constructive discussion. Seriously, what do you expect to learn here? If the problems with military medicine were so trivial that they could be solved on a semi-anonymous chat board, they'd be solved.


But, FWIW, here's the pgg scheme, which served me well as a GMO: Be the best physician you can be, and do the best you can for your patients. If doing the right thing requires violating some idiotic policy, do what you have to do and don't get caught. If you get caught, plead ignorance, because forgiveness is always more readily forthcoming than permission. If you get caught a second time, well, cross that bridge when you get to it.

As trying as the system can be at times, there is always room for a physician to make his own microcosm a little better. Just do that, to the limit of your own endurance.

 

[former military]

Improving Military Medicine at the unit level:

As long as there is the USA, there will need to be a military, which requires medicine. So, hoping military medicine fails and no one joins is unrealistic and unhelpful vitriol.

For those with experience, share some ideas on how to overcome the bureaucrats both at the level we operate everyday – as well as the larger policy level.

No whining; it undermines credibility and demonstrates the absence of a spine.

There are ways to succeed in military medicine and combat the mindless and evil bureaucrats that infest every large organization in world history. I still like to serve both my nation and all those great Americans that enlisted and whom the elitists view as low-class.

First, if you are the MD/DO you have a lot of power. Don’t accept the dictates of clip board nurses or former MD admin types. Do what you think is right and show some backbone.

Resentment at the corrupt and incompetent can easily lead to self-defeating, self-pity. Which is their ally. Find solutions.

If you are that upset about something, call the IG or your congressman. I’ve done it and it works. But, you better have some solutions to offer or evidence of their incompetence; otherwise you will be ignored as a whiner.

You amaze me. As a medical student and a former medic you have such insight into the concept of a military physician who has served 10+ years. You don't even know what you don't know.

 

[militarymd]

uhhhh....ok....

 

[DogFaceMedic]

To suggest my post is an insult to all who serve honorably is a bit of a misreading (profoundly aggravating actually.)

I would like a forum of practical advice and experiences in order to solve practical problems. I do not want the usual rhetoric.

We must have a military - unless someone is offering a dramatically different political philosophy. So, we need military medicine (of which I am a part) and there are two ways to address the bureaucratic problems endemic to the government. The first is to be king and fix it all yourself (or in politics). The second, is to fix problems where we can.

So, I'll ask again: what ideas can people offer?

"PGG", You are exactly right in your approach. I've done it myself.

 

[militarymd]

So, I'll ask again: what ideas can people offer?

"PGG", You are exactly right in your approach. I've done it myself.

I believe PGG's approach has been everyone else's approach until we couldn't take it anymore....

Let it die...don't join....when the manning is critical enough...and all the O-6 clipboard COWmanders have to actually work...and they don't know how...that's when changes will come.

There is NOTHING anyone can do from within...just my opinion.....NOTHING...as long as there is fresh cannon fodder for the O-6 clipboard Cowmanders to hide behind.

 

[Galo]

I believe PGG's approach has been everyone else's approach until we couldn't take it anymore....

Let it die...don't join....when the manning is critical enough...and all the O-6 clipboard COWmanders have to actually work...and they don't know how...that's when changes will come.

There is NOTHING anyone can do from within...just my opinion.....NOTHING...as long as there is fresh cannon fodder for the O-6 clipboard Cowmanders to hide behind.

Unfortunately there is alot of truth in milmd's words. It's nearly impossible to change things other than the immediate one's around you. There are too many people with endless power that do not share our views on how to better medicine. For example: for surgeons, not only I, but many others have made the suggestion to allow moonlighting, possibly even being on staff at local institutions of excellence to help augment our meager surgical load. This happens sporadically, and uniquely at different bases depending on how the current commander wishes or thinks he/she interprets the rules. It can lead to people acutally having been almost court martialed, investigated, asked to take their own leave in order to moonlight, and variations in between. There is no consistency. It all changes with the person in charge, and as I've said it before, by the time they get there, they are usually more clueless than they should.

Its unfortunate that having experienced the best and the worst of the system, those of us with experience do not see it getting better till it gets almost closed down. I agree with exmilmd, nobody should join an organization like this that is currently the pits, and maybe, when it gets critical, someone wiht actual power will get a clue.

By the way IG, congress, they do not do **** other than get you labeled and noticed. That was one the key ways I was able to get out.