Web software database allows medics to consolidate forms, keep Airmen up-to-date

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Christian Michael
  • 1st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (AFPN) --  A new Medical Screening Program is a cure for what used to be a paperwork nightmare at the medical control center. When using the MSP, medical personnel and wing unit deployment managers can easily verify medical deployment status with a touch of a button. 

In the past, the medical status of deploying troops was collected, verified and corrected through a chaotic system of e-mailed Excel spreadsheets. Each sheet was a listing of personnel by squadron and unit type code, usually filled out with different information such as names, Social Security numbers and other pertinent information, though few sheets were alike. 

“Prior to MSP, (deployment manager) would begin sending their sheets to the medical control center after the prepare-to-deploy order came down,” said 1st Lt. Marianne Alaniz, a 1st Medical Group practice manager and MCC deputy officer in charge. “We would then take that information and manually input it into a sheet of our own, which constantly needed to be verified and recoordinated with UDMs.” 

The Excel sheets were also coordinated with five medical functional areas directly involved with deployment: dental, life skills, immunizations, force health management and records review. These five areas would have to constantly work with the MCC personnel, who would then coordinate with the UDMs and back again, to ensure all troops tasked to deploy were medically qualified, or “green,” in all five areas. The previous process was lengthy and was often stressed to provide timely information to the medical group commander. 

“The medical group commander attends wing battlestaff meetings and needs real-time information on how many Airmen are medically qualified to deploy, what UTCs they’re associated with, and trend analysis regarding discrepancies,” Lieutenant Alaniz said.
The solution came in the form of a user-friendly interface built by a new database administrator in the group. Curtis Fisher, a retired master sergeant, took on the challenge to smooth out the process. 

“Prior to the program, spreadsheets were sent via runner or e-mail, required manual processing with constant verification and was highly labor intensive,” said Mr. Fisher. “Now, we can manage all members scheduled for deployment or exercise, ensure they’re fully prepared to go at a moment’s notice and easily identify if there are discrepancies, availabilities or unfinished processing.” 

The program is built as a central hub for UTC processing by three groups: the MCC, the functional areas and the UDMs. As the prepare-to-deploy order comes down, the MCC sends the UDMs standardized templates for their UTCs. UDMs then populate the template fields with information which the MCC can import directly into the Medical Screening Program.
The medical functional areas can automatically view and input discrepancies according to their own records, providing instant feedback to the MCC and UDMs. 

“We get instant reports on Airmen throughout the wing,” Lieutenant Alaniz said. “These reports give general medical information on deployable troops, showing eligibility and non-eligibility.” 

While the MCC can query the system on any functional area for real-time data, the program isolates information for each functional area to view. For the UDMs, there is instant feedback on who is or is not medically qualified, and more importantly, exactly what each member needs to deploy. 

Because of the specified feedback, Airmen can be called into one of the functional areas to receive specifically what they need, such as an immunization shot. This also allows medical personnel to be light and lean at the medical processing line -- taking only what they need to ensure 1st Fighter Wing members are deployable. 

For the commanders, information gratification is instant. 

“We’ve made color-coded, unit-specific reports instantly available to commanders for information and feedback,” said Mr. Fisher. “We’re doing everything we can to maximize performance out of the program, but it’s a work in progress and we’re constantly making improvements.” 

Although the MSP has only been tested once so far, Lieutenant Alaniz appreciates everything the program already has to offer. 

“The MSP expedites exercise deployment preparation capabilities of the 1st Fighter Wing from a medical standpoint,” she said. “The new program has allowed us to synthesize medical deployment readiness information -- a 100-percent improvement compared to past legacy systems.” 

With MSP, medical deployment processing functions can automatically verify medical eligibility and reduce many manual steps necessary to give Airmen the “green” to go.