New requirement prompts smart operations initiative

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Nathan Gallahan
  • 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  The 48th Medical Group here is in the middle of an Air Force Smart Operations of the 21st Century initiative that could save Airmen a lot of time away from the work place.

The medical group's AFSO21 process, which began Aug. 20, is intended to streamline Airmen's medical readiness process while meeting a new requirement for all Airmen to see a physician during their annual personal health assessment.

Once a final solution is reached, 74 other bases Air Force wide may use these ideas so they don't have to hold the same type of event.

Col. Robert Miller, 48th Medical Group commander, positioned them on a course to accomplish three goals:
1. Minimize an Airman's time away from their duty section.
2. Create centralized oversight to the program.
3. Provide timely care to our active duty population and continue to provide access to our space available patients.

"We tried to lean the [PHA] process by first figuring out how much time we have to dedicate to each person to accomplish 8,500 PHAs instead of the 2,500 we are doing now," said Major Juan León, Chief, Public Health Operations, 48th Aerospace Medicine Squadron.

To do that, Lt. Col. Larry Gudgel, director of the AFSO 21 program for the 48th Fighter Wing, pulled together a panel of 15 medical experts and two unit health monitors to discuss solutions.

He said the intent of AFSO 21 events like this is to "take us back to the baseline and eliminate the unnecessary and numerous steps in the process," with a goal "to cut the wasted steps out of the process."

"We developed seven different designs for this to work," Major León said. "We ended up taking bits and pieces from all to come up with a final product.

"Our goal is to have Airmen out of work for less than a day," he said. To do that the medical group is planning to create an Individual Mobility Readiness Cell within the hospital that accomplishes all your medical deployment requirements at one central location."

Until Oct. 1, the team is analyzing all of the areas that are a part of the PHA/IMR process. Data to be collected includes how long each "station" takes, appropriate spaces within which to work, equipment standards and different [models] to define and track the different processes. With that information in hand, the group will reconvene in the beginning of October to find even more ways to streamline the process.

"The testing phase will likely start in mid-October and will last one or two weeks," said Major León.

After testing, there will be a redirection phase during which data will be analyzed and a determination will be made as to whether the new methodology is really improving the PHA process and if additional changes should be made and implemented.

Once the testing phase is complete and the process is approved, USAFE would like the team to submit their solution. Other bases, such as Ramstein AB, Germany, are also submitting their solutions. "It's possible that the two processes may feed off of each other," said Major León.

"I feel very good about the event," said Lt. Col. Gudgel. "They are going to be able to accomplish their 100 percent face-to-face requirement while still proving quality care under some very challenging conditions.