Navy Fears Medical Personnel Crisis

[SemperJeff]

Thought I'd share this article here:
http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,95369,00.html

Article below:

The Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery is worried recruiting problems could lead the service to have too few doctors in the future.
The bureau has asked the Naval Audit Service to “verify the effectiveness” of the Navy medical corps recruiting process, according to documents obtained by Inside the Navy through the Freedom of Information Act.

According to a March 2 memo from Jonathan Kleinwaks, the Navy's acting assistant auditor general for manpower and reserve affairs, the bureau is concerned the medical corps “may be understaffed in the future if annual accession goals are not met.” An accompanying worksheet states the problem in graver terms, noting the program may be “highly” understaffed in the years ahead.

Doris Ryan, a spokeswoman for the bureau, acknowledged the concerns and confirmed the audit is ongoing. Plans for the audit were sparked by a significant dip in accessions for the health professional Scholarship program, which makes up 85 percent of the medical corps accessions each year, she noted.

The scholarship program, which has not met its goal for the last two years, had a “significant shortfall in fiscal year 2005,” she said. The program only attained 56 percent of its goal in FY-05 (bringing in 162 people instead of 291) and 87 percent of its FY-04 goal (bringing in 232 people instead of 265), she said.

It often takes several years to train new recruits in the medical program. If the recruiting process is ineffective and that prevents accession goals from being met, the effects will not be noticeable in the short term, but will “catch up” to the Navy “eventually,” according to the worksheet that accompanies Kleinwaks' memo.

The worksheet indicates the audit will examine key questions, such as whether the Navy medical program has capitalized on using the Internet for recruiting. Auditors plan to determine whether there are better ways to find and assign markets and more efficient ways to access communities. The review is supposed to evaluate the effectiveness of the recruiters' marketing pitch. Further, auditors will consider how to simplify the accession process. Auditors also will consider how Reserve personnel policies hurt the Navy's ability to recruit the number of doctors required.

They want to resolve the shortage problem by improving recruitment. If they tried to improve retention, maybe they would be forced to fix some of the problems often mentioned here...

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[orbitsurgMD]

Thought I'd share this article here:
http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,95369,00.html

Article below:



They want to resolve the shortage problem by improving recruitment. If they tried to improve retention, maybe they would be forced to fix some of the problems often mentioned here...

Stupid, wasteful, lucky. If you are randomly assigned two of the three, sooner or later, you won't get lucky.

They need to look at their entire system to see why they can't attract and retain. Presuming it is merely a problem of recruitment is like the drunk looking for his glasses only under the streetlamp.

 

[militarymd]

Thought I'd share this article here:
http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,95369,00.html

Article below:



They want to resolve the shortage problem by improving recruitment. If they tried to improve retention, maybe they would be forced to fix some of the problems often mentioned here...

Here in lies part of the problem. They don't need to improve retention. They already are too TOP heavy with unskilled docs desperately trying to sticking it out to their 20....unskilled docs who don't do much and let the new guys do ALL the work by using their rank to avoid work.

That's how the system works....majority moving on through...while the lazy, stupid, and lame stick it out (this is a generalization with exceptions) to senior rank.

The entire system needs to die in flames and be rebuilt. They need to kick out all the O-5 and O-6s and rebuild the medical system in a civilian model....incentive based....MD led....healthcare model.....where the administration exists to help the doctors and not the other way around.

 

[island doc]

Here in lies part of the problem. They don't need to improve retention. They already are too TOP heavy with unskilled docs desperately trying to sticking it out to their 20....unskilled docs who don't do much and let the new guys do ALL the work by using their rank to avoid work.

That's how the system works....majority moving on through...while the lazy, stupid, and lame stick it out (this is a generalization with exceptions) to senior rank.

The entire system needs to die in flames and be rebuilt. They need to kick out all the O-5 and O-6s and rebuild the medical system in a civilian model....incentive based....MD led....healthcare model.....where the administration exists to help the doctors and not the other way around.

You could not have said it any better. A perfect description.

 

[SemperJeff]

Here in lies part of the problem. They don't need to improve retention.

Well the reason I said improve retention is because I was thinking that by improving retention the military would keep all the good docs that they are losing. And in the long run, they would replace the incompetence one in administrative positions and could do something about the situation.

Although I guess they would rather treat patients than be resigned to administrative work.

I do see what you're saying though.

 

[Mirror Form]

Well the reason I said improve retention is because I was thinking that by improving retention the military would keep all the good docs that they are losing. And in the long run, they would replace the incompetence one in administrative positions and could do something about the situation.

Although I guess they would rather treat patients than be resigned to administrative work.

I do see what you're saying though.

Keep in mind that older docs get paid more than younger docs (regardless of productivity). So the military has never wanted to have a lot of retention. In their eyes, it's better for everyone to retire and get new batches of docs in. Unfortunately, now that recruiting is down, and the old docs are retiring even faster then previously, the navy is DEFINITELY heading toward a crisis.

 

[Croooz]

In their eyes, it's better for everyone to retire and get new batches of docs in.

In their eyes, it's better for everyone to get out before retirement.

 

[former military]

It is like trying to keep the bathtub full by turning up the water with the drain wide open. Remember the 3 Ins:

in training
in payback
incompetent

when I arrived at my base there were all these undeployable Colonels who had been there 15-18 years at the same base. One is the dept chair, one is the residency director, one or two have some medical profiles to keep them deployed. It was just the capts and majors who would be deployed. It takes 3-5 years to learn all the passive aggressive tricks that is second nature to them. Your mentality is to work and tackle problems directly. Theirs: the five D's (dodge, dive, duck, dip, and dodge).

 

[Croooz]

If you can dodge a deployment you can dodge a ball.....

 

[IgD]

when I arrived at my base there were all these undeployable Colonels who had been there 15-18 years at the same base...

I've never met anyone like that. In the Navy it is fairly competitive to get promoted to O6 now. It would be impossible to get promoted to O6 without an operational tour. Most of the O6's I know have been deployed several times.

 

[militarymd]

I've never met anyone like that. In the Navy it is fairly competitive to get promoted to O6 now. It would be impossible to get promoted to O6 without an operational tour. Most of the O6's I know have been deployed several times.

Current O-5 going for O-6 is competitive.


HOWEVER, There are MANY current O-6's who have been O-6's for god knows how long, who are continuing to milk the system....asking to remain on AD year after year...and being approved year after year. and hanging onto those paychecks while doing little....with each passing day increasing their retirement pay...because they fall under a different retirement system..(pre dopma?)

As long as they are around, life will suck for the new docs......

How can we fix this? LET THERE BE NO MORE NEW DOCS......Let's these O-6's earn their pay...then kick them out.....and replace them with real doctors.

 

[pmoney]

Current O-5 going for O-6 is competitive.


HOWEVER, There are MANY current O-6's who have been O-6's for god knows how long, who are continuing to milk the system....asking to remain on AD year after year...and being approved year after year. and hanging onto those paychecks while doing little....with each passing day increasing their retirement pay...because they fall under a different retirement system..(pre dopma?)

As long as they are around, life will suck for the new docs......

How can we fix this? LET THERE BE NO MORE NEW DOCS......Let's these O-6's earn their pay...then kick them out.....and replace them with real doctors.

What is the different retirement system they are using vs the current one for entering docs? dopma?

 

[orbitsurgMD]

Deleted

 

[orbitsurgMD]

What is the different retirement system they are using vs the current one for entering docs? dopma?

DOPMA is an acronym (and I think it started with Defense Optimization, and you figure out the rest) for a federal law that changed the place on the pay and longevity scale where officers' pay and retirement credit was calculated. It took effect in the early 1980s, and I think those who came onto HPSP reserve duty as late as 1983 were able to avoid its changes. For reserve officers entering active duty, the act eliminated the reserve service time accrued during medical school. Before DOPMA, a 4-year HPSP student started internship (assume military) as an O-3 with 4 years service. DOPMA changed that to O-3 with no years service (assuming no prior service, again). This created a de-facto (and de jure) two-tier pay system where post-DOPMA accessioned officers received several thousand dollars less per year in basic pay and lost four creditable years toward the 20-year minimum retirement. It was a sore point, and made for longer and lower-paid careers.

Considering that pay at the time was not particularly good, the difference was significant.

 

[haujun]

Current O-5 going for O-6 is competitive.


HOWEVER, There are MANY current O-6's who have been O-6's for god knows how long, who are continuing to milk the system....asking to remain on AD year after year...and being approved year after year. and hanging onto those paychecks while doing little....with each passing day increasing their retirement pay...because they fall under a different retirement system..(pre dopma?)

As long as they are around, life will suck for the new docs......

How can we fix this? LET THERE BE NO MORE NEW DOCS......Let's these O-6's earn their pay...then kick them out.....and replace them with real doctors.

As long as military doctors perform dual roles as an officer and a doctor the U.S. military would need the leadership of colonel. I would rather be led by doctor (O-6) than a nurse with same rank...