Author: Joel Schofer, MD, MBA, CPE
Occupational and Environmental Medicine Fundamentals Course – 10-14 SEPT 2018 – Portsmouth, VA
The Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center (NMCPHC) is excited to announce that
it is sponsoring its third offering of the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Fundamentals course September 10-14, 2018 in Portsmouth, Virginia.
The course is intended for physicians that do not have formal occupational medicine training (i.e. occupational medicine residency or experience) who will be practicing in an occupational medicine clinic or have significant occupational medicine-related workload. The course will cover the history of occupational medicine, workplace hazards, risk communication, Navy occupational health programs, worksite visits, and available resources. It will include clinical case break-out sessions.
The NMCPHC will fully fund the students attending the course, including travel.
They are applying for CME/CNE and anticipate the course will be approved for 30.5 credit hours as it has been in the past.
NMCPHC will coordinate with the Regional Program Managers & OEM Specialty Leader to ensure course seats are given to those according to clinic needs, responsibilities, and assigned job requirements.
Please visit the NMCPHC Occupational Medicine Fundamentals Course webpage for more detailed information and student registration request.
Please read the above webpage carefully to answer your questions. If you still have questions not answered by the webpage, please feel free to contact the people below. Their contact info is in the global e-mail directory.
POCs for questions:
Course Director:
Lynn M. Flowers, DO, MS
LCDR, MC, USN
Occupational & Environmental Medicine Physician
Navy & Marine Corps Public Health Center (NMCPHC)
Course Admin:
Ms. Kimberly Little
Program Analyst
Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center
Temporary Work Around to Get the Executive Medicine AQD
The Joint Medical Executive Skills Program website is currently unavailable, making it difficult to get the Executive Medicine (67A) Additional Qualification Designator (AQD). As a temporary fix, they can manually create your profile in their database and update any information such as: education, experience, certifications, etc.
To create your account, they will require your:
- Name (First, MI, Last, Suffix)
- SSN
- DOB
- Corps
- Current Duty Station report date
- Projected Rotation Date
Also, here is a matrix containing information on which competencies you are required to obtain the AQD. It also contains information on how they can be fulfilled.
If you have any questions/concerns, I’d e-mail them here:
Director of Surgical Services at NMCSD – O5/O6
This file has all the details of the position, which is available summer 2018:
There’s an application deadline of 1 JUL 2018.
Here are the CV/BIO/Letter of Intent templates.
Senate Version of FY19 Defense Authorization Bill Disestablishes BUMED
Here is the Senate’s version of the FY 2019 defense authorization bill (S. 2987). If you’re curious like me, you take a document like this and search for key words that might affect your life. Take the word “medicine” for instance…
On page 304 of the document you find this:
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than the date on which the Secretary of Defense establishes an operational medical force readiness organization within a military department pursuant to subsection (f), the Secretary of Defense shall, acting through the Secretary of such military department concerned, disestablish the following:
(A) In the case of the Army, the Army Medical Command, and any associated subordinate command or organization.
(B) In the case of the Navy, the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery of the Navy, and any associated subordinate command or organization.
(C) In the case of the Air Force, the Air Force Medical Service, and any associated subordinate command or organization.
Disestablish BUMED, the Army Medical Command, and Air Force Medical Service? Now that’s interesting.
This would occur:
Not later than the date on which the Secretary of Defense establishes an operational medical force readiness organization within a military department
What would happen to us?
(2) TRANSFER OF PERSONNEL AUTHORIZATIONS.—Any personnel authorization of a command or organization disestablished pursuant to paragraph (1) as of the date of disestablishment may be transferred by the Secretary to the Defense Health Agency or any other organization of the Department of Defense considered appropriate by the Secretary, including an operational medical force readiness organization under subsection (f).
This is simply the Senate version and has to be reconciled with the House version. What’s the likelihood that something like this actually becomes law and happens? I have no idea, but the fact that they are thinking about it is certainly something of interest to all of us.
Here’s another article that discusses the medical impacts of the Senate’s proposal:
Senate’s NDAA admonishes DoD for failure to obey prior health reform mandates
Did Senate Panel Go Too Far on Officer Management Reforms?
This is certainly an interesting read by the Military Officers Association of America:
Guest Post: Read Your Orders – Executing a Close Proximity Move
By Dr. G. Adam Jakubek*
I am in the process of a PCS from NH Jacksonville to Kings Bay, and noticed that my Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) would drop significantly based on the change in duty station zip codes. The BAH rates vary depending on your duty station zip code, not your address, so you could see a dip in a few hundred dollars if your duty station changes but elect to keep your home in your prior, higher BAH rate zip code.
I’ve had colleagues PCS to close proximity duty stations and elect to not move their family and miss out on keeping their BAH at their old duty station. Some examples I’ve seen where people see a drop in BAH are PCS moves from San Diego to Camp Pendleton, or the Bethesda/National Capital Area to places like Annapolis or Baltimore where rates drop by $200-300/month.
The current order writing system authorizes funding for a household goods shipment by default if your new duty station is farther than 30 miles away from your prior duty station, but you might prefer to make the commute if it means staying in your home, keeping your kids in the same schools, etc.
My current orders have the following statement attached:
‐ MEMBERS WHO RECEIVE PCS ORDERS WHEN THEIR OLD AND NEW PERMANENT DUTY STATIONS ARE WITHIN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO EACH OTHER (BASED ON A REASONABLE COMMUTE DETERMINED BY THE GAINING CO) MAY BE ELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE A CLOSE PROXIMITY WAIVER AND RECEIVE BAH BASED ON THEIR OLD PDS LOCATION. SEE NAVADMIN 101/10 FOR WAIVER ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS AND PROCEDURES. GO TO: HTTP://WWW.PUBLIC.NAVY.MIL/BUPERS‐NPC/ REFERENCE/MESSAGES/PAGES/DEFAULT.ASPX.
If you follow the instructions in the NAVADMIN, it is a relatively simple process, but the key is completing the request through your gaining command BEFORE you execute your orders. Your gaining command needs to endorse your request stating that your commute is ‘reasonable’ and you forfeit your household goods shipment, making it a no‐cost PCS move for the government.
Once you receive the signed endorsement letter from your gaining command, you forward that letter directly to your detailer. You’ll get an order modification that drops your household goods shipment funding and states that you’re authorized BAH at your prior duty station rate. Again, make sure you follow up with your detailer prior to checking out of your old command if you haven’t seen your order modification come through in NSIPS. Once you check into your new command PSD or Human Resources department with your modified orders, you’ll be locked into that BAH rate and cannot retroactively request funding for a household goods shipment if you decide to move later on in your tour.
Here are some useful templates to help you with this process:
Close Proximity Approval Letter
Close Proximity Request Letter
*The views expressed in this blog are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense or the United States Government.
My Guest Post on White Coat Investor – Disability Insurance for Military Physicians
Check out my guest post on the White Coat Investor site:
MOAA Post – Defense Bill Would Protect Hundreds of Military Medical, Dental Offices
This is certainly a short but interesting read…
Defense Bill Would Protect Hundreds of Military Medical, Dental Offices
Billets Still Available
I check the Medical Corps Chief sharepoint page (pick your e-mail CAC certificate) weekly to see what new information is on there. This spreadsheet was recently updated, and on it are a few billets still being advertised. If any of these interest you, contact your Detailer:
- Student at the Naval War College – O5/O6 with JPME I complete
- Physician Researcher at Naval Medical Research Center in Silver Springs, MD – any rank who is qualified as a researcher
- Senior Medical Officer on the USS Emory S. Land (AS-39) in Guam – O5/O6
- Executive Medicine/Surgical Detailer at PERS – O6
- Medical Department Staff – Defense Intelligence Agency Detachment (Washington, DC) – O6
Guest Post – Mindset for the GMO, UMO, and Flight Surgeon
By Dr. Keith Roxo, LCDR, MC(FS), USN*
I teach the medical logistics lecture for the flight surgery course at NAMI. I don’t do it because I love logistics or am some kind of logistical guru; I do it because it is a great way to have a discussion about mindset for young physicians.
I begin the lecture by asking if there are any medical students in the class. It seems silly, right? They smile and look around thinking that I am being silly. Next I ask how many interns or residents are in the class. I raise my own hand because I am a resident in the Aerospace Medicine program, but generally I’m the only one with my hand up. They are starting to get a little confused by my line of questioning. It is all set up for my next question: “if you aren’t a medical student, intern, or resident then what are you?”
The answer is that they are an attending physician. And after telling them that they are all, indeed, attending physicians, I get a lot of wide eyes in the crowd. The occasional student, who happens to already be board certified before going into flight surgery, already understands this, but they are few and far between.
For the last five years most of the flight surgery students have had near constant supervision and have not had the final say on any patient. Every plan or prescription had to be run through someone else before being executed. They have very little experience doing it on their own, but many are about to be thrust into that position. They need to start thinking about how they want to run their practice, solidifying resources and contacts, how do they get help for more challenging cases, how to handle a mishap, and how to transfer a patient from an austere location. Better to start thinking about this stuff from the safety of the Pensacola beaches or classroom rather than when a problem first develops.
Meanwhile, the logistics part of the talk is a way for me to get them to also think of themselves as a mini-department head. It doesn’t matter if your Marine Air Group (MAG) surgeon or the military treatment facility is supposed to manage your supplies, if you go on det or deployment missing items, it hurts you and your people. Better to be involved in your supply than to trust the system blindly.
Not all GMO positions are equal. Some are on a staff with other senior physicians. However, some are running solo with a squadron, infantry unit, etc. without much support from more experienced physicians. Getting your mindset right before you are in those positions can go a long way to better preparedness.
*The views expressed in this blog post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense or the United States Government.
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 