Surgeon’s Office working toward improving customer service

Photo By Staff Sgt. Toshiko Gregg | Staff Sgt. Kimberly Harris, case reviewer 81st RSC Surgeon's Office, is the person that receives the profiles, pulls all supporting documentation and notifies soldiers by phone and email.  

FORT JACKSON, SC, UNITED STATES

12.05.2013

Story by Staff Sgt. Toshiko Gregg 

81st Readiness Division

FORT JACKSON, S.C. – The 81st Regional Support Command hosted a quarterly RSC meeting with representatives from United States Army Reserve Command, all RSCs Surgeon Offices and Health Service Branches were in attendance. It focused on process improvement and discussions on future changes within the medical profiling process and medical board actions.

Medical readiness and the well being of Army Reserve soldiers has been a top priority for the RSCs.

The problem lies with being able to create a process that’s functional and connects to those units that are unfamiliar with the processes, policies and regulations.

“This is our second quarterly meeting and the purpose of it is to get the USARC command surgeon, the four RSC surgeons and their administrative people in the same room,” said John Brineman, 81st RSC command surgeon, “and to make sure that we understand what the process is and to apply it consistently throughout the four RSCs and constantly be looking for opportunities to employ the best practices.”

The RSCs are identifying that several commands and soldiers are still unfamiliar with how temporary and permanent profiles are created and processed.

Once a physical health assessment (PHA) is done through Logistics Health (LHI) and the soldier has a medical issue that shows limitations, LHI then creates a temporary profile.

The provider that reviews the soldier’s documents during the PHA does not provide a diagnosis or give a prognosis of any complaints or concerns that a soldier may have. A soldier has to be seen by their personal provider to get a full evaluation. All temporary or permanent profiles that are created in the system with a three or four in the PUHLES have to be case managed by the RSC Surgeons Office.

“The big issue is always communication,” said Brineman “We still haven’t figured out how to communicate effectively with the commanders.”

When it comes to medical readiness, it’s important for all commanders to have access to the different medical systems like the electronic profiling system (e-profile), Electronic Medical Management Processing System (eMMPS/Line of duty module), The Medical Protection System (MEDPROS) and the Medically Not Ready tracker (MNR tracker).

“When you look into eprofile a lot of the profiles in the system haven’t been touched by the unit level, this is a continuing problem,” said Brineman. When it comes to the PHA process “a lot of our soldiers don’t understand what we are doing. If they wake up in the morning with a headache for the first time in three months, this is something that doesn’t need to be documented on their PHA.”

This is one of the reasons as why it’s so necessary for our soldiers to be briefed about the process prior to them going to get a PHA.

The 81st Surgeon’s office is taking the initiative toward improving communication by scheduling site visits during a unit’s drill weekend and brief them on the medical readiness and medical board process.

“Our objective as of right now is to make contact with units at the lowest level possible,” said Staff Sgt. Kimberly Harris, case reviewer 81st RSC Surgeon’s Office, “so that we can educate the soldiers and their chain of command on medical readiness and profiling issues.”

The goal is to be able to brief soldiers at an LHI event so they can make sure that they are getting the biggest number captured.

“At the end of the day our biggest concern is about making sure these unit are deployable and their percentages are reaching the medical readiness standards, “said Harris.

The RSC command surgeon is available to provide advice and guidance to the RSC commanding general pertaining to soldier medical readiness, medical plans and operations matters and soldier health care issues. The RSC command surgeon provides professional assistance and serves as subject matter experts on health relations issues. The surgeon also advises commanders with selected medical soldiers, those in non-medical units, with their medical MOS training and continuing health education requirements.

For assistance with the status of your medical readiness and profile actions email [e-mail].

• Date Taken: 12.05.2013
• Date Posted: 12.12.2013 13:23
• Story ID: 118131
• Location: FORT JACKSON, SC, US