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Constancy of purpose unwavering throughout change

  • Published
  • By Maj. Gen. Sean Murphy
  • Air Force Deputy Surgeon General
If you have followed military medical news recently, you know Congress directed changes in military medicine in an effort to reduce redundancies and improve efficiencies. Our unwavering commitment to Trusted Care makes the Air Force Medical Service ready to take on this challenge.

In just a few months, administration of the health benefit at several Air Force military treatment facilities, as well as several sister service MTFs, will transition to the Defense Health Agency. This transition continues to evolve as we work with Congress and our Military Health System teammates to ensure the best possible outcome for all Airmen, their families, and our patients. Although we do not fully know what the end-state will look like, I can assure you the leadership team here in the Air Force Medical Service is fully engaged with your best interests in mind.

Change or no change, one thing will never change – our purpose to deliver Trusted Care. Together, with constancy of purpose and a shared vision of safety and zero harm, we will always focus on delivering highly reliable world-class health care. Our constancy of purpose will ensure combatant commanders always have medically ready Airmen and ready medical Airmen. We will always keep readiness our number one priority and deliver the level of care America expects from us.

Proof of your commitment to constancy of purpose is evident in several Trusted Care Heroes we highlighted recently. An Airman developed a new process and checklist to reduce infections. Another Airman recommended some time-saving care for an infant’s parents, and by doing so potentially saved the infant’s life. Two Airmen traveling on a civilian airliner cared for an unconscious passenger for more than an hour until handing him off to medical personnel upon landing.

These are the actions and examples of your wingmen demonstrating constancy of purpose – providing Trusted Care with relentless determination to improve the lives of everyone around them. In each case, these medics could have kept quiet and simply let events happen around them. Instead, they spoke up, put their patients first, and demonstrated the Trusted Care commitment to deliver the very best care possible.

As we continue on this transformation journey, I urge each of you to be a positive example by remaining focused on our purpose. Change is not something to fear. Change is an opportunity to find better ways to get the job done and care for our patients. On behalf of Lt. Gen. Dorothy Hogg and the entire leadership team here in Air Force Medical Service, thank you for what you do each and every day.