Author: Joel Schofer, MD, MBA, CPE
You Were Selected for Promotion to O5 or O6 – Should You Accept It?
BLUF – If you are hoping to retire but are not willing to serve 3 years as a Commander or Captain, you should decline the promotion. (This is not applicable if you are resigning. Only if you are hoping to retire.)
The policy regarding promotions and retirements is governed by OPNAVINST 1811.3A. If you are lucky enough to be selected for promotion to O5 or O6, you should be familiar with this instruction and make sure you are willing to spend 3 years as a CDR or CAPT before you plan to retire.
Paragraph 4b of the OPNAVINST states:
“Officers must satisfy the minimum active duty time-in-grade requirement to retire in the highest grade satisfactorily served…Officers who desire to retire before completion of the minimum time-in-grade requirement must decline appointment to the next higher grade. Officers who have accepted appointment to the next higher grade must satisfy the retired grade criteria in paragraph 7.”
Seems like we need to go to paragraph 7…
“7. Time-in-Grade Requirements. Unless retirement in the next inferior grade is directed by SECNAV for an officer or warrant officer under reference (c), then officers, warrant officers, and enlisted members retired voluntarily or transferred to the Fleet Reserve shall be retired in the highest grade satisfactorily held upon completion of the following time-in-grade requirements…Three years for an officer serving on active duty in pay grade O5 or O6.”
Paragraph 5b states:
“Unless waived by proper authority, approval of requests for voluntary retirement or transfer to the Fleet Reserve will normally be denied until an individual has completed: (1) The applicable time-in-grade requirements of paragraph 7;”
In addition, paragraph 7e states:
“COMNAVPERSCOM shall normally deny retirement requests or Fleet Reserve requests of members serving on active duty in, whose length of service in the highest grade held while on active duty does not meet the time-in-grade requirements specified above.”
What’s the bottom line? There are certain exceptions spelled out in this policy, and you can get information on time-in-grade or next-lower-grade waivers here and here, but if you want to retire and accept promotion to CDR or CAPT you should be willing to serve in that rank for 3 years. Otherwise, you should decline the promotion.
FY18 Officer-in-Charge (OIC) and Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Application Information
Here is the BUMED note if you are interested in applying to be an OIC or CMO:
BUMED NOTICE 1410 – Application Procedures for FY18 Navy Medicine Career Milestone Screening Board
Navy-Wide Medical Student Mentor Program
I’m re-posting this because they still need more mentors and there is some confusion. Although this program is being coordinated at/by NMC Portsmouth, it is Navy-wide and for any interested physicians to participate in. Please consider doing so. Go to the original post to get the info:
Navy-Wide Medical Student Mentor Program
AMSUS Call for Abstracts and Reviewers
Call for Abstracts
The 126th Annual AMSUS meeting will be held in the Washington, D.C. area 28 November-1 December, 2017. The call for abstracts is in full swing and we need some of your motivated officers to step up and present on the impressive work they are doing at a variety of settings. The lecture submissions are due on 31 May 2017 and the poster session presentations are due on 1 September 2017. Areas of interest include:
- Battlefront Care
- Combat support
- Humanitarian Missions
- Disaster response
- Global Health Operations
- Patient movement
- Homefront Care
- Definitive treatment
- Rehabilitation
- Recovery
- Return to a new normal for both patient and family
- Traumatic injuries
- Psychological Status/PTSD/TBI
- Disease and Population Health
- Preparedness & Operational Issues
- High Reliability Organizations
- Patient Satisfaction
- Value based care
Please encourage your members to consider presenting at this year’s meeting here in Washington D.C. For more information go to the AMSUS website 2017 Call for Abstracts page or check out the AMSUS Meeting Announcement.
Call for Reviewers
Do you have members who are looking for opportunities for a collateral duty/volunteerism, or to earn CME? The 2017, 126th Annual AMSUS Meeting extends this Call for Volunteer Reviewers to help select presentations for
the 2017 CE/CME sessions. The committee will include a variety of professionals across disciplines including physicians, physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers, psychologists, pharmacists, dentists, dieticians, and medical administrators.
http://www.amsusmeetings.org/2017-call-reviewers/
Each reviewer will be responsible for reading an assigned set of abstracts, completing an online score sheet and submitting recommendations. Approximately 8 hours of review and online reporting will be required. As an online review process, you will have access at your convenience. Reviewers will be acknowledged in the Continuing Education print material, and AMSUS web site as part of the organizing committee for the 2017 AMSUS Annual Meeting. A certificate of participation as a reviewer is available upon request. The review process will begin 5 June 2017 and be completed no later than 10 July. Conference attendance is not required to volunteer as a reviewer.
To apply as a reviewer, please submit a CV, with contact information, by email to Lori.Lawrence < at > amsus.org no later than 5 May 2017. Include the following:
- Name
- Identify your professional category to review
- Email and phone number
- List of Medical Credentials
- CV
Detailing Update – Orders, PRDs, Resignation, Retirement, a Survey, and War College
Here are a few notes one of the Detailers sent out yesterday:
Delayed Order Release
Due to financial constraints, no orders have been released in the last several weeks. We acknowledge this is incredibly inconvenient to our constituents. Standby for more information, we will pass it as we get it.
Expired Projected Rotation Dates (PRDs)
Many officers have PRDs that are set to expire this summer. Officers with expired PRDs are attractive targets to place in high priority OCONUS and operational billets. Please get your extension requests in ASAP.
Resignation/Retirement
Officers planning to resign or retire should have their requests in 9 months prior to their requested detachment month. Requests turned in less than 6 to 9 months prior to requested detachment will be kicked back. There were several officers extended past their obligation because they did not send their request in on time.
I recommend reading CDR Schofer’s blog post entitled “How to Resign Worry Free.”
The earliest these can be submitted is 12 months prior to requested detach date.
Survey for Officers with a 2017 PRD
If your PRD was in 2017 and you accepted PCS orders or extended, please consider completing a one minute survey to assess attitudes regarding the billet assignment process among Medical Corps officers. The survey will close June 1st.
Last year we administered a survey of Navy Medical Corps officers to assess attitudes regarding the billet assignment process. We took measures to improve the process for billets assigned in 2017 and we are administering another short survey to measure improvement. The results, available at the end of the survey, will be briefed to leadership and made public. THANK YOU!
Naval War College
PERS needs people for the August 2017 Naval War College class. Applicants must have completed Joint Professional Military Education 1. They will consider breaking orders for appropriate applicants. Please see this blog post for a War College description by a current student.
Personal Finance for the New Attending
Here is an audio podcast of a 30 minute lecture I gave at Naval Medical Center San Diego’s Transition to Practice Symposium that they put on last week for all the graduating residents and fellows. I hope you enjoy it.
All New Evals and Fitreps Coming Soon – Military Times Article
Here is another article about the changes to our fitreps:
Navy Announces Effort to Modernize its Performance Evaluation System
WASHINGTON (NNS) The Navy announced Sunday that an effort is underway to replace its current performance evaluation system with a new, modern one.
“While NAVFIT 98 has worked for many years, we believe that it is time to develop a different system to measure Sailors’ performance,” said Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. Robert Burke. “Our reason for making this change is threefold. First, we want a system that provides more meaningful, frequent and useful feedback to Sailors. Second, we want to objectively measure Sailors’ performance. Third, we want to remove artificialities in our current system, such as the tendency of reporting seniors to rate individuals by seniority rather than talent.”
The Navy’s goal is to test a conceptual prototype platform later this fall while running the existing performance evaluation system in parallel.
“The Navy’s current system was conceived, developed and implemented in 1996, and there has not been a major overhaul since,” said Commander, Navy Personnel Command Rear Adm. Rich Brown. “Transforming the way we measure Sailors’ performance will ultimately provide better transparency, counseling opportunities and a more accurate assessment of an individual’s talent. Our Sailors deserve a modern evaluation system and we are working to develop it as quickly as possible.”
The Navy has outlined an initial concept for a system that meets the following objectives:
- Measure an individual’s performance through standards based objective measures
- Tailor reports and counseling objectives to paygrade/seniority and experience (e.g. E1-E3; E4-E6; O1-O2; O3O4; O5-O6)
- Remove forced distribution competitive categories
- Enable formal and informal counseling that is both meaningful and frequent
- Include warfare communities’ specific objective measures
- Provide accountability, feedback and control mechanisms on reporting seniors’ performance grades
- Enhance talent matching aspects of counseling and formal reports
- Simplify reporting senior and counselor completion by allowing cloud based/mobile device input
Navy Personnel Command began leading fleetwide working groups in midApril to discuss the development and implementation of a new system.
“This change is not going to occur overnight,” Burke said. “We have a lot of work to do, and will partner closely with the fleet every step of the way. Rest assured that no one will be disadvantaged as we implement a new system. As we go forward, you can continue to expect a lot of discussion and we’ll give you plenty of notice before any changes are made. Please make your voices heard and take part in our fleet focus groups that will travel to your home ports this summer and fall. Additionally, you have a direct line to me via email at usnpeople.fct@navy.mil. We need your help to get this right.”
For more news from Chief of Naval Personnel, visit www.navy.mil/local/cnp/.
FY18 O6 Selection Statistics by Specialty
Here is the specialty specific data:
| # IZ | #SEL IZ | % SELECT IZ | # AZ | #SEL AZ | % SELECT AZ | # BZ | #SEL BZ | % SEL BZ | |
| FLT SRG | 0 | 0 | #DIV/0! | 6 | 1 | 16.67% | 2 | 0 | 0.00% |
| RAM | 1 | 1 | 100.00% | 4 | 0 | 0.00% | 1 | 0 | 0.00% |
| ANESTH | 3 | 2 | 66.67% | 15 | 0 | 0.00% | 18 | 0 | 0.00% |
| GEN SURG | 2 | 1 | 50.00% | 11 | 1 | 9.09% | 11 | 0 | 0.00% |
| NEURO SURG | 0 | 0 | #DIV/0! | 1 | 0 | 0.00% | 2 | 0 | 0.00% |
| OB GYN | 4 | 2 | 50.00% | 9 | 2 | 22.22% | 5 | 0 | 0.00% |
| GMO | 0 | 0 | #DIV/0! | 0 | 0 | #DIV/0! | 0 | 0 | #DIV/0! |
| OPHTH | 3 | 0 | 0.00% | 1 | 0 | 0.00% | 6 | 0 | 0.00% |
| ORTHO | 5 | 1 | 20.00% | 8 | 0 | 0.00% | 6 | 0 | 0.00% |
| OTO | 4 | 2 | 50.00% | 6 | 3 | 50.00% | 6 | 0 | 0.00% |
| URO | 3 | 1 | 33.33% | 1 | 0 | 0.00% | 7 | 0 | 0.00% |
| PREV MED | 1 | 0 | 0.00% | 3 | 2 | 66.67% | 8 | 0 | 0.00% |
| OCC MED | 0 | 0 | #DIV/0! | 5 | 1 | 20.00% | 1 | 0 | 0.00% |
| PHYS MED | 0 | 0 | #DIV/0! | 1 | 1 | 100.00% | 0 | 0 | #DIV/0! |
| PATH | 3 | 2 | 66.67% | 8 | 0 | 0.00% | 6 | 0 | 0.00% |
| DERM | 0 | 0 | #DIV/0! | 4 | 0 | 0.00% | 2 | 0 | 0.00% |
| EMERG | 5 | 2 | 40.00% | 7 | 3 | 42.86% | 16 | 0 | 0.00% |
| FAM PRAC | 6 | 1 | 16.67% | 27 | 3 | 11.11% | 28 | 0 | 0.00% |
| INT MED | 5 | 3 | 60.00% | 23 | 3 | 13.04% | 21 | 0 | 0.00% |
| NEURO | 0 | 0 | #DIV/0! | 2 | 0 | 0.00% | 4 | 0 | 0.00% |
| UMO | 2 | 0 | 0.00% | 4 | 0 | 0.00% | 2 | 0 | 0.00% |
| PEDS | 3 | 0 | 0.00% | 8 | 0 | 0.00% | 13 | 0 | 0.00% |
| NUC MED | 0 | 0 | #DIV/0! | 0 | 0 | #DIV/0! | 0 | 0 | #DIV/0! |
| PSYCH | 2 | 0 | 0.00% | 7 | 2 | 28.57% | 10 | 0 | 0.00% |
| DIAG RAD | 11 | 5 | 45.45% | 15 | 4 | 26.67% | 16 | 1 | 6.25% |
| RAD ONC | 0 | 0 | #DIV/0! | 0 | 0 | #DIV/0! | 1 | 0 | 0.00% |
| TOTAL | 63 | 23 | 36.51% | 176 | 26 | 14.77% | 192 | 1 | 0.52% |
Family Medicine/Operational Detailer Position Available Now – Millington, TN – O4-O6
As a recovering Detailer, I strongly encourage anyone looking to promote to O6 consider this position. Here is the announcement:
Family Practice and Operational Detailer position available now! Seeking LCDRs, CDRs, or CAPTs eligible to move in the summer of 2017. All specialties eligible.
- Career Enhancing: ever heard of a detailer that did not make CAPT? We haven’t. This is a high-visibility job that will give you career diversification.
- Make a difference: as a detailer assigning positions and providing career counseling, you have the opportunity to positively affect member’s lives and change policy at a high level.
- Take a break. Ever thought about life without call or weekend shifts? Remember those things called “3 day weekends” you had back in elementary school?
- Stay clinical. All 3 physician detailers stay clinically active.
- Memphis! Living in Memphis, the home of the blues, the birthplace of Rock n Roll, and the biggest city in Tennessee, is a blast. Urban offerings (museums, restaurants, night-life, zoo), history (Civil War, Music), outdoor activities (running, hiking, camping, road-biking, canoeing, etc.), and food options (BBQ, Jack Daniels whiskey) abound. Check out this website: http://ilovememphisblog.com/
- Kids? Live cheaply in a gorgeous neighborhood with one of the best school districts in Tennessee. (http://lakelandk12.org/) (http://oakwoodlakeland.com/)
- Single? Exciting downtown Memphis is only 20 minutes away from Navy Personnel Command.
- Spouse? The job market is excellent for spouses in Memphis Tennessee.
If interested, the POC is listed in this Detailing Position Announcement.
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 