Navy Medicine is bringing Navy command leaders together to look at how it can best put resources toward addressing physical and mental health.
Navy Medicine exists across the fleet, Surgeon General of the Navy Rear Adm. Darin Via told USNI News, but it’s spread out. The goal with the new Navy Medicine Enterprise is looking at how to fold in what the Bureau of Surgery and Medicine has to offer with what the type commands need.
As an example, Via pointed to aircraft carriers. They deploy with medical teams that are hired by BUMED but then follow the orders of the commander of Naval Air Forces.
The new Navy Medicine Enterprise, signed into order by Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jim Kilby, is similar to the one the fleet went through in 2002, when the Navy created a structure that would improve efficiency and effectiveness, as well as readiness. Navy Medicine was not included in the 2002 enterprise, Via said.
The enterprise is in its early days, Via said, with Kilby signing the order on Aug. 14. First, the Navy will create a board, with Via as the chair, that will include the vice chief of naval operations, the deputy chiefs of naval operations for manpower, personnel and education, fleet readiness and logistics, warfighting requirements and capabilities and warfighting development, as well as the commanders for U.S. Pacific Fleet, Military Sealift Command, Naval Air Systems Command, Navy Installations Command, Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Naval Warfare Command, Naval Supply Systems Command, among others.
The board will look at what the priorities are, whether the resources are best aligned based on those priorities and if they are developing the right outcomes, Via said.
“And so through a coordinated effort group, we work a lot of these entities, but there’s no organizational structure that brings it all together, and that’s what the Navy medicine enterprise will do,” he told USNI News.
The board has not yet met, which will be one of the first steps for the new enterprise. The meeting will consist of Via laying out what is currently happening and hearing from the commanders about their priorities for the fleet.
The aim is to create measurable action plans with targets that can be assessed as met or not met, Via said.
A strain on military medicine due to the shortage of physical and mental health professionals has led to long waiting periods for sailors and their families, sparking the creation of the new enterprise, Via said.
It also came after U.S. Fleet Forces Commander Adm. Daryl Caudle approached Via to find out more about how Navy Medicine works. Via found that there needs to be a way to bring everything together for Caudle.
The Navy Medicine Enterprise will involve command leaders, but the effects of the decisions from action plans will be felt by sailors, regardless of their position in the Navy, Via said.
“So that any issues you’re having as a sailor that involves health services, your commander knows it, and senior leadership knows it, so we can fix it and make it better,” he said.
