health.mil

Sandra Abrams  |  Health.mil

January 25, 2011

Vice Admiral Adam M. Robinson Jr, Surgeon General of the Navy speaks at the 2011 MHS Conference.

The best and the brightest don’t all go to Wall Street. They also go into the military and in particular, military medicine. Now the military health system wants to kick it up a notch and create an even better pool of talent by integrating new operational models and realigning its training process for enlisted personnel. “I am talking about education, training and talent management. All of those things we must do in order to make sure we get the best and the brightest. Then, we need to make sure that the best and the brightest have all of the tools they need in order to do the hard work on the battlefield or in the hospitals around the world,” said Vice Adm. (Dr.) Adam M. Robinson Jr, Surgeon General of the Navy. He was speaking at the 2011 MHS Conference at the Gaylord Conference Center near Washington, D.C. on how to grow an even stronger healthcare team.

Robinson, who entered naval service in 1977 and now has 63,000 personnel in the Navy medicine community under his care, outlined several key elements to the Navy medicine future. First, he discussed the patient and family–centered philosophy as the bedrock of the Navy medical system. It is his belief that medicine should be brought to the patient, not the other way around. Added to this principle is a shift towards preventive health over disease intervention. Robinson stated this medical model was echoed by many speakers in the morning plenary session on Monday including Sen. Tom Daschle, former majority speaker. “A disease model is one we need to get away from and we really need to go the prevention model in order to have the biggest impact on our patients,” said Robinson. He said he believes the cost-benefit analysis works in favor of the military. “It’s something that is incredibly important. It is hard to do it and is expensive to do it but the return on the investment is so great that we must continue to do it,” he said.

As military medicine stands at the crossroad and gears up for the next chapter, Robinson was optimistic that the Navy medical community and its people were ready to face the future of military health, thanks in part to the Quadruple Aim. It will play an integral role in accomplishing these objectives because it is very powerful for many different reasons Robinson said. “It is a magnificent construct for how we should run our military health system. It puts all of the pieces we need to have together,” said Robinson. “We have a standardized approach to counting, measuring and how we are progressing and delivering care to our patients. I think, tied with the military home port plan, it is one of the most powerful things to occur in my lifetime in the military health system.” All of this gets back to the personnel: to attract, train and educate for readiness in order to deliver health care anytime and anywhere. Robinson views his people as his most important asset, and the key to building talent.

“I use the term assets not resources. Resources are about things, assets are more about people. The key here is we have to make sure we lead our people because we manage things; you manage inventory, you do not manage your personnel. You lead your people; you lead your personnel. You do not manage them,” said Robinson.

That future of leading and creating the best medical personnel has to do with training. Towards the end of his presentation, Robinson outlined the move to consolidate training as part of the Base Realignment and Closure integration. The training is for enlisted personnel in order to best develop the navy medical work force at the new Military Education Training Campus (METC) in San Antonio, Texas. The training facility for sailors, soldiers and airman will offer a way to close the gap in terms of making sure all enlisted have the same basic foundation in medical training. Over 100 courses will be taught and the campus is expected to have close to 25,000 students annually. Robinson is confident this new system will help improve the military personnel readiness to fully support current and future medical operations.

Also read Air Force Surgeon General Urges Greater Patient Involvement

Army Surgeon General Calls Resilience Key to Military's Success

Coast Guard Stays Ready By Addressing Force Health

For more information about the 2011 MHS Conference visit http://www.health.mil/mhsconference

For more information on Vice Adm. Robinson's take on training, educating and retaining military medical personnel, go to DoD Live Medical Monday link below.

http://www.dodlive.mil/index.php/2011/01/medical-monday-education-training-and-total-force-shaping/

Health Care [News]  |  education   Navy   2011mhsconference