Hospital Teams from Defense Health Network Pacific Rim Hone Clinical Leadership Skills

Last month, chief medical officers (CMO), chief nursing officers (CNO), and chief dental officers (CDO) from the Defense Health Network Pacific Rim (DHN-PR) headed to Fairfax, Va., to hone their skills and build their expertise as clinical leaders.

CMOs, CNOs, and CDOs across the Defense Health Agency (DHA) facilitate the integration of care, enhancing readiness, and aligning and standardizing dental, medical, and nursing practices within the MTFs.

The three-day training that kicked off May 29 in Virginia was attended by DHN-PR CMOs, CNOs, and CDOs from Naval Health Clinic Oak Harbor, Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms, and Naval Health Clinic Lemoore, along with their counterparts from 43 other military treatment facilities (MTF) from across the DHA.

“Last month’s training for our chief medical, nursing, and dental officers underscores our unwavering commitment to excellence in military health care,” said Capt. Thecly Scott, DHN-PR deputy commander. “By focusing on the development of these dedicated leaders, we are also reinforcing our commitment to delivering consistent world-class care, strengthening operational readiness, and maintaining the high standards of care our beneficiaries throughout the Defense Health Network Pacific Rim deserve.”

The event was led by senior personnel and experts from the DHA and covered topics such as patient safety, referral management, patient experience, financial management information systems, virtual health, and more. They provided participants with insight into the agency’s priorities and mission, which is to support “our nation by improving health and building readiness—making extraordinary experiences ordinary and exceptional outcomes routine.”

The work done at the deckplate by doctors, nurses, and dentists in every hospital and clinic around the globe, led by their CMOs, CNOs, is vital for achieving that mission, which makes opportunities such as this training key to giving them the tools and information they need to be successful.

“Learning key information and updates directly from DHA leadership and learning from subject matter experts about a variety of programs, including high reliability, legal, business metrics, and more was very beneficial,” said Capt. Joshua Treesh, Navy dentist and CDO for DHN-PR.

Participants were able to get more familiar with medical reporting systems, health care performance metrics, and financial management tools used at the MTFs that are essential to the delivery of high-quality health care.

Treesh, who attended to support DHN-PR’s CMOs, CNOs, and CDOs said the course was an excellent opportunity for the participants to collaborate with their colleagues from other MTFs, interact with network leadership, and gain valuable information to take back and implement at their hospitals and clinics.

The training culminated in a graded assignment by each MTF’s CMO, CNO, and CDO team.

“As part of the assignment, the teams created a presentation that discussed their MTF’s performance metrics across a variety of programs, including the Disability Evaluation System, Behavior Health Data Portal, dental readiness, beneficiary enrollment, and primary care access,” said Treesh.

Oak Harbor tied for second place overall and both Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms and Naval Health Clinic Lemoore received top grades, demonstrating the beneficial impact of the training.

For Treesh, the biggest takeaway was hearing directly from, “DHA leaders that they are committed to creating a culture within our MTFs that focuses on enhancing the health care experience of the patient, and to invest in and leverage technology such as virtual health care and other digital platforms to improve access and the efficient delivery of world class care to the most deserving patients in our nation.”

Defense Health Network Pacific Rim (DHN-PR) is one of the Defense Health Agency’s nine networks of hospitals and clinics that deliver high-quality health care to the more than 362,000 TRICARE-eligible beneficiaries we are privileged to serve. The DHN-PR headquarters is located in San Diego, supporting military treatment facilities along the U.S. West Coast and overseas in Guam and Japan.