Moving Forward in 2012

As I have recently taken the reins of Navy Medicine, my goal here is to share some of my thoughts on how we plan to complete the transition to a new leadership team and orient ourselves to the real-time situational analysis of where we are, what we do and where I believe we need to be going.

ARABIAN GULF (March 23, 2011) Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Ramone Resop, left, conducts medical response training with Sailors aboard the countermeasures ship USS Ardent (MCM 12). Ardent is underway with elements of Combined Task Force 52 participating in a Joint mine counter-measure exercise with NATO, U.S., U.K. and French forces. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Lewis Hunsaker/Released)

Headlines change daily, and we know there will be a shifting landscape and new opportunities as we align ourselves with the strategic imperatives and direction of the Chief of Naval Operations and the Commandant of the Marine Corps. It is the responsibility of our leaders, myself included, to take their direction and vision and implement it into what we do each day and how we shape and utilize our capabilities to support the war fighter and their families.

Our No.1 priority as Navy Medicine moves forward will be to drive with strategic vision to a new position in order to maintain the equities and capabilities needed from our organization. My goal as the new chief of the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery is to foster a culture of leadership at our headquarters in Washington  that leads and is responsive to your issues. Communication also will be essential to our success. We will focus on strategic message alignment across the Navy Medicine enterprise to allow you a better sense of how leadership is thinking to better empower your teams on the deck plates.   

I have six key areas of interest that will be the bedrock of my tenure as Navy surgeon general. These include:

1.  Support of the War Fighter: Care for the war fighter is why we exist. We must provide world-class care from the battlefield to bedside. This is our top priority. Our combat casualty care capability represents a continuum of training from battlefield to bedside to rehabilitative care and support. It includes care for the caregiver and leveraging technology to optimize care.

2.  Readiness: The ability to be ready and prepared to respond to the needs of our nation is inherent in our ethos. We need to maintain a persistent state of high readiness so that we are always ready to respond to needs to support everything from kinetic action to humanitarian assistance and disaster response missions.  Navy Medicine’s hallmark has always been that we are already there or we get there soonest! When the world dials 911, it is not to schedule an appointment, and I am proud of the Navy/Marine Corps team and our role in leaning forward in this effort. 

3.  Value: Navy Medicine must look intently at the value of what we provide to our beneficiaries. We must think of the concept of “quality multiplied by capability, all divided by cost.” Think of “value” as the numerator or denominator goes up or down. My team should anticipate hearing me asking a lot about the value we provide. I want that to become part of their battle rhythm in all they do as they evaluate current processes and proposed ones. We will take a hard look at our unique capabilities as well as those we provide with others ... and we will talk value as we make both strategic and tactical decisions.

4. Healthcare Informatics: We will not make true headway on the cost or access to healthcare without continued leverage of information management and information technology at all levels of care. We have many skilled people working hard on this, but I expect our leaders to make this a priority and create that expectation at the deck-plate level. Rest assured that I will work strategically at the headquarters level to find enterprise solutions.

5. Jointness: The synergy of creating efficiencies, removing redundancies and allowing transparency will elevate care and reduce costs. Accepting a “joint culture” does not mean loss of identity or service culture. There is amazing joint care on the battlefield; and we are seeing joint staffing at major medical centers and within our graduate medical education programs. Joint command-and-control cannot happen overnight and must grow from the deck plates with coordinated efforts from the services and those best informed to provide input so that more light than heat is generated.

6. Global Engagement. Many of our missions have a global footprint which is an important part of our nation’s diplomatic presence around the world. Navy Medicine is forward deployed with our war fighters overseas and our research units providing a global health benefit around the world. Navy Medicine personnel serve as ambassadors worldwide and are the heart and soul of the U.S. Navy as a “Global Force for Good.”

I am excited about the future! I am encouraged by the opportunities and the shaping that will occur as Navy Medicine finds its new equilibrium in a dynamic and evolving environment. I am grateful to be serving as the 37^th Navy Surgeon General and for the opportunity to work with the unparalleled Navy Medicine team providing “World-class Care ... Anytime, Anywhere!”

Back to Outlook 2012