DHA Director: Freedom to Switch Health Plans Makes it Harder to Plan for the Future

Thank you for the health share brother Robert

I’d like to see the DHA go one step further. As a military medical provider, I would like to see the the fluff cut out of military medical care and refocused on a fit, fighting force and battle field medicine. It seems like our current level of operation focuses too much on “access to care” instead of quality or level of care, current operations levels take away valuable training time to ensure every healthcare provider is at the peak performance level of the critical items outlined in their AFTR (CFETP) or other initial/recurrent training guidance, placing contractors/GS employees into positions that operational or deployment critical and removing high dollars contracts (such as EMS) so that military medics can learn critical skills similar to those required for deployment and exercising their autonomy in a controlled environment to provider them for the uncontrolled environments. Our first line medical deployers should not be getting “just in time training” that reintroduces them to traditional knowledge and skill and an awareness level of new procedure and therapies. They should be imbedded in real medical centers, learning real medicine, continuing their education and practicing those low frequency-high risk skills expected to perform down range. Practices such as “mandatory quarterly Immunization training” vs Advanced Cardiac Life Support training that is done every 2 years, should be re-evaluated. A task that can be done by referencing a flip book, with no critical time demand, shouldn’t have a higher precedence over a critical life-saving skill that requires rapid identification and intervention. Intubation and treatment of a multi-system trauma patient is a once annually tasking, and can be accomplished by discussion, yet hand washing and other “feelings training” require a demonstration and group activity. Holding Line Asset Risk Mitigation positions to the same arbitrary patient encounter requirement as MTFs takes away from the mission. Whether seeing 50 sprained ankles or 300 colds, if the acuity is not there, no benefit to increased, arbitrarily assigned numbers. I believe that DHA is on the right path but still has a way to go.