Furloughs sending civilians packing (Military civilian medical workers quitting)

Stars and Stripes ^ | 28 Aug 13 | Gregg Zoroya

[SkyPilot]

Nearly 3,400 military medical workers quit this year in the months when furloughs were threatened or being carried out because of spending cuts known as sequestration. The vast majority of those losses were with Army medical facilities.

Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho, the Army's surgeon general, says one out of 20 of her civilian medical doctors, nurses and other health workers -- or 2,700 out of 42,000 civilian health employees -- left their jobs for work elsewhere.

She said departing staffers included highly skilled clinicians, scientists, researchers and other health workers. Eighteen percent were doctors and nurses, her staff says. Medical support assistants, dental assistants, medical records technicians and administrative support personnel also quit or retired.

Many of those leaving went to work for the Department of Veterans Affairs which was not included in the budget cuts, Horoho says.

It's not possible to know exactly why people quit, but Horoho says she believes much of the exodus was because of uncertainty over when and for how long the furloughs would occur, and whether they will resume next your, along with concerns about plans to downsize the Army in the near-future.

She said the furloughs "had a very emotional impact. And that's the piece, as the commander of Medcom (Army Medical Command) that if I could have avoided it, I would have. Some of our civilians are feeling very devalued."

The Air Force, which has a smaller medical staff than the Army's, reported a 6% loss during that period, or about 575 employees. The Navy said it lost about 1%, or 120 people.

The job losses occurred from late February or March when furloughs first loomed to when they finally concluded this month.

[SkyPilot]

Imagine that. You treat highly trained professionals like doctors, nurses, and medical research scientists like dirt, take 20% of their paychecks, freeze their pay for 4 years, and you get a brain drain.

______________________________________________________________

Congress currently appears inclined to allow automatic budget cuts to resume next year.

She said the civilian medical staff worked side-by-side with uniformed doctors and nurses during the years that casualties arrived from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, adding that their services will be needed as the Army recovers from the fighting.

_________________________________________________________________

This is an obscenity. I know what many will post here in an angry retort: "Hey! There are a lot of worthless bureaucrats too!"

True, but most Federal agencies that are worthless avoided furloughs altogether. The DoD, a Constitutional enterprise, gets hurt by Sequestration far, far harder than any other agency (50% of all cuts) - and 650,000 DoD maintainers, cops, firefighters, doctors, engineers, and nurses were furloughed by Obama and Hagel. The GOP Congress is not blameless, they voted for Sequestration and used DoD as a hostage. When Obama and the Democrats shot the hostage, the GOP did shrugged their shoulders, and continue to do so.

The GOP of Ronald Reagan is dead.

Long live the "new" GOP.

It isn't just medical professional leaving DoD: engineers and highly sought after specialists like Military Working Dog handlers or those who understand Contracting (where you can make much more money in industry) are leaving in droves or about to jump ship.

And on top of all this......we are about to embark in a major war in the Middle East that could widen into WW III overnight.

[SkyPilot]

Title of Stars and Stripes article is:

Military civilian medical workers quit after furloughs

[mountainlion]

I hope a bunch of them come over to the V.A. With threats from the IRS lots of uninsured Veterans are headed to VA for healthcare which will hit the overloaded system hard.

[George from New England]

This maybe more due to Obamacare in general and the mass medical exodus rather than anything to do with the Sequester/Furlough.

[Starboard]

The sequester is merely a band aid for a government that that is in critical condition becuase we are simply running out of other people’s money. Future cuts will be necessary and be far more painful. Its inevitable.

The GOP has enabled this mess IMO and should be held accountable along with their Democrat partners in crime.

[yldstrk]

Look who she kept: the evil psychobabblers

“She exempted most of her behavioral health staff, where only about 10% were sent home one day a week.”

[yldstrk]

good. shut it down

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

One of the Roman Caesars was mortally wounded. As he lay dying, he told his successor,
“Always make sure the Army is paid!”

[Sequoyah101]

Right, but we have money for hormone shots for Bradley Manning because he wants to be a girl and it is the “right thing to do” even though he is a convicted traitor. We also have money for:

palestinian mortgages
helicopter flights to look for dead ducks and to persecute oil execs but not windmill operations
all manner of stupid studies
$380,000,000 to remodel the oval orifice
and on and on and on.

[Thunder90]

Unfortunately, there are not many jobs out there for these people thanks to Obamacare.

[SkyPilot]

This maybe more due to Obamacare in general and the mass medical exodus rather than anything to do with the Sequester/Furlough.

A possible factor George, but unlikely in this case.

These were DoD doctors, nurses, and medical professionals who were specifically cited by the article in Stars and Stripes (and also USA Today) and the command leadership of their respective military medial service as leaving because of the furloughs and poor treatment from DoD leadership, not ObamaCare. I have little doubt, however, that you are correct in that ObamaCare is having ripple effects (alreadly) throughout the medial community at large.

[Starboard]

There’s also lot’s of money to fly the president’s dog around the country.

[SkyPilot]

Look who she kept: the evil psychobabblers

Look who the DoD also exempted from furloughs:

Pentagon to Exempt Sexual Assault Prevention Workers from Furloughs

[SkyPilot]

The sequester is merely a band aid for a government that that is in critical condition becuase we are simply running out of other people’s money. Future cuts will be necessary and be far more painful. Its inevitable.

The problem being that mandatory spending (i.e. Entitlements) were exempted from the Sequester.

The takers are taking just fine - thank you very much. The "pain" you cite is not being felt by most Americans.

It can't go on.

Even is we "zeroed" out Defense, we are screwed.

[SkyPilot]

We also have money for: palestinian mortgages helicopter flights to look for dead ducks and to persecute oil execs but not windmill operations

Yup - and it is not getting better. I have little hope that Congress and the President will resolve anything.

They will pass a Continuing Resolution that ensure the Entitlement checks keep flowing, probably at the same time that Syria and Iran are lobbing missiles at Israel, while our Air Force and Navy are in the middle of a shooting war.

[DUMBGRUNT]

Just a prelude for 0bamacare!

Some of my kin happen to be physicians and would be ahead if most of the Medicaid/Medicare was done for FREE, if the paper work was eliminated!

It gets worse.
Some procedures mandated because they are ~95% effective also majorly expensive and VERY uncomfortable for the patient. So much so that many never complete the treatment and will go blind!
The old procedure was cheap,simple and painless but ~85% effective !

And the out of pocket expense was big numbers on the gov way.

[dagogo redux]

Behind each doctor or nurse who quits is an army of bureaucrats dictating orders to the doctors and nurses, and behind each one of them an army of politicians and lawyers dictating what they must dictate to the doctors and nurses.

When the front line troops - the docs and nurses - desert, you may still have an army, but it will consist only of human infrastructure: Chain of command, JAG officers, logistics and support units, etc - few of whom ever gave a meaningful rap about the front line medical troops who actually saw patients.

[SkyPilot]

That's great rhetoric against the behind the door, faceless bureaucrats. That always gets applause. But it does nothing to deal with the reality that medical professionals are leaving the Dept of Defense when we need them the most, as well as other professionals - because they have been used as the political whipping boys by our political class.

It also does nothing to address Sequestration cuts to the military, which last another 9 years.

[sassy steel magnolia]

ouch, this loggie sharply felt that sting when your reply lumped me into a group who didn’t give any care to these troops (PEOPLE!) and their dependents (PEOPLE!) and the retirees (PEOPLE!) that we take care of...while I’m not a clinician, I did and still do care tremendously about the warriors in all of our services, their families, their support personnel sharing battlefront with them...my job was explained to me like this when I was a “butter bar” lieutenant: ok, so you don’t directly take care of patients. But if you don’t do your job right, on time, ahead of time, you impact those who DO take care of patients, so you are responsible for that whole string of events, and most importantly responsible for the fate of another soldier/airman “warrior.”

That in turn was how I directed those who worked for me for the rest of my 20 years in the USAF. I had mental pictures of my dad (aircraft/flightline maintenance) and my husband (naval aviator) needing me to do my job so they could do theirs.

So, we’re not all heartless admin weanies. As for the article, I’m sure there is more than just sequester and furloughs for the reason...could be constant deployments, the physical fitness standards, the diversity environment crammed down their throats, the deliberate elimination of Christianity from the military, the distrust of the government (ya go to work with terrorists in uniform, get hurt/killed and it’s “workplace violence”), the deterioration of our military leadership, the terrible effect of the Obama administration and his awful presidency...

sigh. So glad I am not in uniform anymore; so proud I did serve however, and even more proud of my stepson who now serves as an F-16 munitions loader...

This family still waves the flag of patriotism, and we have willingly served for this country. So sad to see how it declines like the Roman and British empires did...

[Starboard]

we are screwed
******

The DEBT per taxpayer is now around $150,000. But the LIABILITIES per taxpayer (SS, drugs, Medicare) is over $1 million!

Interest rates are rising and debt service will consume larger and larger portions of the budget.

The Great Ponzi Scheme is beginning to unravel.