Naval Branch Health Clinic Mayport holds change of charge ceremony

Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Jacob Sippel | MAYPORT, Fla. (Sept. 28, 2018) – Lt. Cmdr. Elizabeth Farrar salutes Capt. Matthew Case, Naval Hospital Jacksonville commanding officer, during a change of charge ceremony at Naval Branch Health Clinic Mayport on Sept. 28. Farrar has served as NBHC Mayport’s interim OIC since June 2018. Cmdr. Brian Hower now assumes the role of officer-in-charge duties at NBHC Mayport. (U.S. Navy photo by Paige Gnann, Naval Station Mayport/Released).  

MAYPORT, FL, UNITED STATES

09.28.2018

Story by Petty Officer 1st Class Jacob Sippel 

Naval Hospital Jacksonville

MAYPORT, Fla. – Cmdr. Brian Hower assumed the officer-in-charge duties of Naval Branch Health Clinic Mayport from Lt. Cmdr. Elizabeth Farrar on Sept. 28, during a ceremony at the clinic.

Farrar has served as NBHC Mayport’s interim OIC since June 2018. She will continue in the role of administrative officer, a position she’s held since September 2017. Farrar, a native of Ennis, Texas is a Medical Service Corps officer who has served in the Navy for over 10 years.

Capt. Evelyn Tyler served as OIC from August 2015 to June 2018. A native of Chicago, she was selected for the Navy’s Medical Enlisted Commissioning Program in 1991. She attended Norfolk State University and upon graduation was commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps in 1994.

Tyler oversaw an expansion of NBHC Mayport’s services, with an eight percent increase in enrollment. She coordinated healthcare services for 400 joint participants during annual PANAMAX exercises, in support of U.S. Southern Command and U.S. Fourth Fleet.

Tyler established NBHC Mayport as an independent site for basic life support training, certifying 435 personnel in life-saving techniques. She implemented the area’s first long-acting reversible contraceptive clinic for active duty women.

Tyler led the clinic’s three Medical Home Port teams in achieving highest-level recognition from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (the nation’s gold standard in patient-centered medical homes). During her tenure, the clinic also hosted a successful survey by The Joint Commission (the nation’s largest and oldest accrediting body in health care), a successful inspection by the Medical Inspector General, two consecutive Navy Surgeon General “Blue H” gold awards, a safety excellence award, a retention excellence award, and a score of “commendable” on the 2016 safety and occupational health management evaluation.

Tyler departed NBHC Mayport in June 2018 to assume the duties as director of nursing services at U.S. Naval Hospital Sigonella, Italy.

Since then, Farrar has continued the work done by Tyler.

Hower, a Navy Medical Service Corps officer and native of Cape Coral, Florida, is NBHC Mayport’s newest OIC. Most recently, he served as deputy executive assistant to the deputy surgeon general of the Navy at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.

Hower thanked Tyler and Farrar for preparing the staff for continued success, and setting an exceptionally high standard. “I’m thankful to be part of Naval Hospital Jacksonville’s team at Naval Branch Health Clinic Mayport, and I look forward to our journey ahead,” said Hower.

Hower brings with him nearly 30 years of Navy health care experience. He enlisted as a hospital corpsman in 1989 and was commissioned an ensign in the Medical Service Corps in 2001. He earned a master’s degree in public health, health policy, and management from Loma Linda University in 2007.

Hower has deployed to Bahrain and Jordan as a lead medical planner for Marine Corps Forces Central Command; and as a member of the Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has served as recovery care coordinator for U.S. Special Operations Command, and as director for administration at U.S. Naval Hospital Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

NBHC Mayport’s staff of 250 active duty, civilians, and contractors provide services to 15 ships, 5 littoral combat ship crews, 3 helicopter squadrons, 28 tenant commands, and 21,000 enrolled patients (active duty, retired, and families) in the Navy’s third largest fleet concentration area.

NBHC Mayport is one of Naval Hospital Jacksonville’s six health care facilities located across Florida and Georgia. NH Jacksonville’s priority, since its founding in 1941, is to heal the nation’s heroes and their families. Of its patient population (163,000 active and retired sailors, soldiers, Marines, airmen, guardsmen, and their families), about 84,000 are enrolled with a primary care manager and Medical Home Port team at one of its facilities. To find out more, visit www.med.navy.mil/sites/navalhospitaljax.

• Date Taken: 09.28.2018
• Date Posted: 10.01.2018 14:19
• Story ID: 295062
• Location: MAYPORT, FL, US