Jul

30

Retired AF Medic on McCain/Obama Flap

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Military physicians are usually not afforded “spotlight” treatment by the media; that accord is usually reserved for operational (ie, Line) officers, and usually flag officers at that. But recently retired (2006) Air Force physician Colonel Katherine Scheirman has made some headlines lately by being an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, and most recently regarding the political hay over Senator Obama’s trip to Germany:

“In Germany, Senator Obama made the right decision to respect wounded troops, and the doctors and nurses doing crucial and time-sensitive work, by not making a visit that was characterized as a campaign event by the Pentagon. Senator Obama should be thanked for putting our military above politics. And, I would hope that John McCain would think in those same terms, the next time he is put in a similar situation. Senator Obama has voted for the troops when John McCain has not, most recently on the new GI Bill. I am happy that Senator Obama puts the welfare of our troops above politics.”

I hate to bring up “politics” here on Air Force Medics, but seriously — her role as Chief of Medical Operations for USAFE/SG has virtually nothing to do with what occurred (or didn’t) last week with the Obama & McCain camps. As a physician, she may have been concerned about troop welfare, but political visits by high-ranking officials are pretty routine. If a sitting Senator wants to visit troops, then he can and will. Her “expert” opinion as USAFE/SGO means very little, in this context.
And I say that as someone who worked with Dr Scheirman (very briefly) during our respective active-duty careers and found her to be a very nice, professional lady. It’s just that, in this instance, her comments are irrelevant, no matter what the Daily Kos kids and Democratic Underground wackos think.
Unrelated - but possibly of interest - Col Scheirman is also a graduate of the Baylor MHA program.

Jul

25

RIP, Colonel (Dr) George Martin

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It’s not too often that Air Force medics perish in a plane crash, but the B-52 crash in Guam last week that killed six Airmen sadly claimed the life of Colonel (Dr) George Martin. Col Martin served as the deputy commander of the 36th Medical Group, the Air Force clinic at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. By all accounts, Col Martin truly loved everything about the Air Force, both within Earth’s orbit and above it.

As a student at Ohio State, George Martin had posters of the galaxy on his apartment walls. Astronauts were celebrities to him — he seemed to know all of their names. He wanted to fly. He joined the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps and graduated in 1980. A bad knee kept him from space, but he still craved it, one of his classmates said. He went on to medical school at OSU, and he later specialized in emergency medicine and aerospace medicine. He became a flight surgeon.

The Barksdale AFB website has a memorial page for the six Airmen; five of them were assigned to Barksdale; only Col Martin was assigned to Andersen AFB. Colonel Martin leaves behind a pregnant wife and young daughter. RIP, Col Martin.

Jul

20

Baylor MHA

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How many of you are familiar with the Baylor MHA program? It’s the military’s Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) program that partners with Baylor University. The actual program is conducted at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. It is taught by both civilian Baylor professors and military instructors, and the prerequisites for entry it is pretty tough to get into.

“If you graduate from college with a 2.0 GPA you can still apply to Harvard Business School’s MBA program,” Coppola says. “You won’t get accepted, but you can apply. Here at Baylor, you have to be a top-level performer just to be allowed to apply - and then there is more culling on this end.” (Patrick and Coppola, for example, competed as students against nearly two dozen other soldiers for two of the Army slots).
“The students refer to it as ‘taking a long drink from a fire hose,’” says Lt. Col Nick Coppola, the program’s director. “Typically, the first year they spend about 40 hours in class and another 50 hours studying each week in addition to maintaining all the other military standards required of them. So that’s a pretty appropriate metaphor.”

The program consists of one academic year at Ft Sam Houston totalling 60 credit hours. Courses include strategic planning, quantitative analysis, international health, epidemiology, finance, information systems, health policy, and medical jurisprudence. A grueling year, especially when coupled with military requirements such as physical fitness and team projects.
After completing the academic year, students are sent to year-long residency programs at large hospitals or other healthcare agencies, such as Johns Hopkins, Wilford Hall Medical Center, and Ben Taub General Hospital. During residency, the students observe and learn about managing large healthcare systems, complete various projects for the COO or Administrator, and complete a comprehensive Graduate Management Project.
The academic standards, the comprehensive course of study, and the demanding residency all add up to the Baylor MHA program being ranked #20 in the nation by US News & World Report; it is almost always in the top 25 out of more than 300 programs in the nation.
Also of note: the Baylor MHA program is open to all branches of military service (AF, Army, Navy) and also to civilians in the Veterans Administration. Graduates are largely healthcare administrators (MSC officers), but every class also includes a handful of nurses, at least one physician and one dentist, and a smattering of allied health officers such as pharmacists and podiatrists.
If you’d like to learn more about the Baylor MHA program or the history of it and the alumni, one of the long-time professors in the program, David Mangelsdorff, maintains a large list of links and resources.
And how do I know so much about the program? Why, I’m a graduate, of course! If you plan to make the AFMS a career and have a passion for healthcare administration, then this is the program for you. You will learn things and meet people that simply can’t be duplicated in a “civilian” MHA program.