Medical Service Corps (MSC) Roles

Got an e-mail asking me what healthcare administrators (MSC officers) in the Air Force Medical Service do in their day-to-day job. Here is a list of the most common duties of junior MSC officers:

Resource Management Officer: direct the financial planning, manpower program, data collection, and business office functions. In a small facility, you will be the sole officer, with a likely staff of one or two enlisted folks and two or three civilians. In a large facility, there will likely be two officers – one as the “chief” and one as the “deputy.”

Managed Care Officer: responsible for managing the integration between the military facility and the civilian healthcare network; oversee referral management, liaison with civilian providers; usually have a few military and several civilian employees, and likely a few contract employees.

Medical Logistics Officer: responsible for procuring, distributing, and maintaining all supplies and equipment used in the facility; oversees the Facility Management function (infrastructure) and the Biomedical Maintenance/Repair function. Generally the most “military” environment of an MSC, with a large contingent of enlisted staff and only a few civilians.

Information Technology/Systems: manage the overall IT program, which is considerable in all AF medical facilities. Procure, deploy, and manage network applications and MS Office programs; maintain the “electronic medical records” systems; liaison with other AF network managers.

Medical Readiness Officer: responsible for ensuring all wartime training and education is conducted by and for all military medical personnel at your facility; plans and executes “wargames” to test the skills of medical personnel in both wartime and peacetime contingencies (natural disasters, etc).

These positions are pretty “corporate” in many ways; nearly all of them involve you, a desk with a computer (lots of Powerpoint!), attending meetings, managing your staff, and exhibiting leadership. You are, essentially, a junior executive. The day-to-day uniform at most AF bases and at most AF medical facilities is the “BDU” or “camouflage” uniform. On special occasions – such as formal ceremonies, or meeting with civilian counterparts in their respective facilities – you might wear the “blues” uniform – blue slacks, light blue shirt, tie, etc. But mostly you wear your cammies.

There are other roles for junior MSC officers that fall outside of the “routine” — such as Executive Officers, headquarters (regional HQ) positions, aeromedical evacuation, health promotion officers, and a few others. But most entry-level MSC officers will likely have one of the jobs listed above during their first several years in the Air Force.

Note: the above references are largely for the “peacetime” Air Force responsibilities at regular Air Force bases. In a deployed environment (Iraq, etc), most MSC officers spend their time doing Medical Logistics and/or managing Aeromedical Evacuation.

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