Senior medical officer engages safety professionals

Photo By David San Miguel | Maj. Gen. Joseph Caravalho Jr., deputy surgeon general and deputy commanding general (support), U.S. Medical Command, presented his views at the Senior Safety and Occupational Health Summit hosted by the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center at Alexandria, Va., April 12-17.  

FORT RUCKER, AL, UNITED STATES

05.15.2015

Courtesy Story

U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center

FORT RUCKER, Ala. – Captivating them with his candor and wit, the Army’s deputy surgeon general challenged the audience of 350 safety and occupational health professionals to continue focusing their efforts on the achievable goal of zero preventable harm within their respective organizations despite any future challenges.

Maj. Gen. Joseph Caravalho Jr., deputy surgeon general and deputy commanding general (support), U.S. Medical Command, presented his views at the Senior Safety and Occupational Health Summit hosted by the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center at Alexandria, Virginia, April 12-17.

“You tell your organization that you want to move to zero preventable harm, that that’s your goal,” the general said. “That’s something you strive for on a regular basis, a daily basis and a forever basis. You let them know that you understand there is human fallibility, and that there is no system that is 100 percent risk-free. What you’re trying to get out of this is people keeping their antennae up, always looking for what could go wrong.”

The general added that if organizations accept this mindset, its members would learn to readily identify risky behavior, risky situations or near misses, and then take positive actions to prevent accidents and mishaps.

According to the latest CRC accident report, the Army has experienced a decrease in on-duty fatalities, yet has seen an increase in off-duty pedestrian and four-wheel privately owned motor vehicle accidents as compared with fiscal 2014 statistics for the same time period.

To mitigate these off-duty occurrences, Caravalho said it will take leaders’ conviction and support for the unit’s safety program.

“If you can convey to (our Soldiers) their inherent value, not only to get the work done during duty hours, but throughout life. Let them know they are our brothers and sisters, that they’re our families, that they’re Soldiers for life. I think this will help us move in the right direction and help mitigate the risk during off-duty hour activities,” Caravalho said. “If we’re part of an organization that inspires folks to make good decisions, it won’t matter what environment they’re in - they’ll continue to make good decisions.”

He equates engaged leaders driving their organization’s safety culture to that of concerned parents raising their children.

“At some point, we may send them off to college. When they call home and say, ‘Everyone is at a party, but I decided to stay in my room to study,’ you’ll know you’ve succeeded,” the general said. “What you’ve done is inspire them to make good decisions when they’re out on their own.”

Caravalho admits that for the safety professional, carrying out this responsibility is tough in light of the looming fiscal uncertainty and personnel reductions currently facing the military community.

“The harder you work, the more nothing happens,” he explained. “How do you convince senior Army leaders the time, energy and funding is worth it? They’re looking for 'show me what you’ve done.' We just can’t say here’s a new grenade or rocket launcher or MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle). Nothing happened!”

When accidents are down, convincing commanders that safety is a worthwhile cause may prove difficult, the general said. At times one may wonder if an event has to occur before commanders realize how important safety is to the unit. And after these events, the immediate focus is on the unit’s resiliency and its ability to bounce back and recover.

Yet, despite any success that units may experience in accident prevention, leaders at all levels cannot become complacent. They need to show their conviction to maintaining that safety culture within their organizations each and every day, he said.

It’s important for unit leaders to establish a system so that individuals who are not in compliance with safety standards can be held accountable, the general added.

“I think it is right to assume people want to be safe and they want their unit’s safety system to work well. Here’s what you need,” Caravalho said. “You need leader involvement. You need the right culture, even it requires a drastic change, and then you need a good, rigorous process improvement plan.”

Part of that strategy includes studying the CRC’s aviation directorate to better understand its accident investigation processes.

“What we and the aviation community share is our interest in creating a safe environment and eliminating errors, certainly preventable errors,” he said. “(The medical community) is intrigued with how Army aviation is doing this. We’re intrigued with their centralized pool of experts and how they conduct investigations at two levels: one to understand what happened, and the other on the lines of accountability.”

In addition, Caravalho said he’s curious to understand more fully how the CRC uses local experts to augment its accident investigation team and how the team quickly responds to investigate.

“We want to recreate these aspects within Army medicine,” he said. “We’re also asking Navy and Air Force medicine to join us, so we can leverage the power of the whole military health care system. We want to learn not only from Army medicine experiences, but from Navy and Air Force lessons learned, as well.”

• Date Taken: 05.15.2015
• Date Posted: 05.15.2015 11:13
• Story ID: 163434
• Location: FORT RUCKER, AL, US