By Colonel Richard A. Dennis, Jr
Military downsizing has confronted us with issues we were trying arduously to avoid. Today’s reality is a smaller military with a changed mission. The Joint Health Service Support Mission 2010 proposes to promote a healthy and fit force, prevent casualties, and care for and manage casualties. We must now implement this vision with fewer resources and greater flexibility.
The Department of Defense, acting under recommendations made by the Quadrennial Review Board, has dictated a significant reduction in military manpower. The Army Medical Department is still 800 to 900 officers over the authorized end strength. How do we decide as a corporation what is (are) the most important skill group(s) to retain in green (blue and white) suits? Answer: We do a make-buy study. Assuming that audiologists have some worth to the military, we should be able to demonstrate that worth in dollars.
Recently, COL Richard Danielson, action officer for the make-buy analysis, undertook the task of demonstrating that an active duty Army Audiologist was a more economical product when raised in a green suit, than bought off the civilian economy. Dr. Brian Walden assisted in the study by surveying several of the most prominent university programs in an effort to determine the extent and depth of training in hearing conservation. In no case was more than a single course offered in hearing conservation. Further, Dr. Doug Ohlin and his staff provided information suggesting that over the past 10 years the Army saved $800 million as a direct result of Army Audiologists involvement in hearing conservation.
COL Danielson assimilated the data gathered from our professional organizations and contractors regarding salaries for clinical audiologists. The civilian government audiologist (GS 12/GS 13) averages a salary of approximately $57,000/year, with benefits averaging about $15,000/year. Contract employees made slightly more in salary than the GS employee. Our medical center chiefs, whose positions were graded against similar Veterans Administration positions, would cost the Army a salary of $95,000 or more. Dr. Waldens inquiry of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) database regarding hearing conservation audiologists was surprising. The ASHA database reports only 26 audiologists providing only hearing conservation services. This would seem to make contracting that service very difficult.
In all, we were able to demonstrate a significant cost saving to the Army by growing our own. Whether this will have a significant influence on how the Army Medical Department decides how to downsize is yet to be determined. The message to our sister services is, get ready, your turn will come.