Health care directly affects mission readiness, said Darin Selnick, the official performing the duties of undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.
Selnick spoke to medical professionals yesterday at a town hall meeting at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
"What you do is very important," he said, adding that he intends to ensure they have the resources needed to succeed.
Selnick said he aims to get military health care to the level of "the best in the nation."
"But it takes time. It takes energy. It takes persistence, and it takes the dedication of all the staff," he said.
"Are you an island of excellence in the sea of mediocracy?" Selnick asked. "We do have islands of excellence, but the goal is not to have islands of excellence. The goal is to have everything excellent."
If warfighters and their families are not healthy, their "heads are not going to be in the game," and recruitment and retention will suffer, he said.
"We definitely don't want to hide problems. I ask for people to tell me the problems," Selnick said, noting there can't be solutions without knowing the issues that exist. That requires a climate of trust, where people are not afraid to discuss concerns with their chain of command.
Selnick said better medical records integration needs to happen between military and private health care systems.
Hiring highly qualified physicians is very competitive, he said. The Department of Veterans Affairs wants them, the military wants them, and the private sector can pay very good money to get them.
The one advantage the military has is its sacred mission of serving the warfighter, but Selnick said better incentives and recruitment processes are needed. Partnering with academia to help the recruiting pipeline is one idea. More ideas will be explored.