ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- Air Force Reserve Command’s emphasis on improving its Individual Medical Readiness numbers is getting a shot in the arm from the “Get ’Em Green, Stay Ready” communication initiative.
Maj. Myte Dahl, a senior medical administrator with the 908th Aeromedical Staging Squadron at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, Alabama, recently assisted with a Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) event that helped identify ways to increase IMR. The CPI event was planned and executed to address Lt. Gen. John Healy’s strategic priorities of Ready Now! and Transforming for the Future. Healy is the AFRC commander and chief of the Air Force Reserve.
The CPI team identified the need for a communication plan to help spread to word about the importance of Individual Medical Readiness (IMR).
“The IMR program’s goal is to meet the Defense Department’s 90 percent Total Force Medically Ready (TFMR) standard and the Partially Medically Ready (PMR) rate of less than 25 percent,” Dahl said. “We are focused on PMR – it has a far more significant impact on the CAFR’s Ready Now! tasking order.”
To that end, command senior leadership is zeroing in on a lower PMR percentage rate.
“This (25 percent) is a minimum standard,” said Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Pennington, AFRC deputy commander, in a recent memo to the command. “As a component, we are postured and resourced to exceed that standard utilizing our Reserve Medical Units (RMUs), supplemental contract services under the Reserve Health Readiness Program, and authorized services at active-duty medical treatment facilities. Service members, commanders at all levels, and RMUS will focus efforts to minimize overdue PMR items,” Pennington said.
“All Airmen can impact PMR,” Dahl said. “Given this reporting for IMR across the DoD, change management will be critical. Communicators can expect initial pushback due to lack of understanding.”
Per DoD instruction, TFMR is now calculated by adding fully medical ready and partially medically ready numbers and dividing by the total of available Reservists.
Healy said senior leadership involvement at three levels is critical to the new plan’s success.
“The Air Force Reserve must transform for the future and increase readiness now in a predictable manner by developing the medically ready force needed to win the future fight,” he said. “Group, wing and Numbered Air Force commanders also must be engaged to ensure units under their command are medically ready as well.”
To help spread the word about the importance of Individual Medical Readiness, the Headquarters AFRC Surgeon General staff is partnering with Public Affairs on the ‘Get ’Em Green, Stay Ready” campaign to provide commanders with resources and information to increase unit medical readiness.
The deliberate, synchronized messaging campaign explains the concepts of integrated IMR changes to ensure Air Force Reserve readiness.
Dahl said the campaign relies on lessons learned at the squadron level. The integrated medical readiness idea takes the best of Reserve and regular-component authorities to modernize both talent and human capital management, thereby enhancing operational readiness.
Healy emphasized the critical need for this synchronized communication effort as it underlines his tasking order’s urgency.
“Prioritizing IMR ensures the best use of the Air Force Reserve’s headquarters and wing staffs,” he said. “We have leveraged the rare opportunity to develop a new IMR structure that will enable the Reserve to harness innovations in human capital management to attract, recruit and retain the top talent we need to prevail in the air and space domain.”