Military Medical Executive Education Review

The TRICARE Management Activity (TMA) asked the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) to evaluate how DoD is meeting the congressional mandate of ensuring that its senior military healthcare professionals possess the required executive competencies before assuming command or key positions. DoD and the Services established a joint medical executive skills development program (JMESDP) to meet these obligations. The foundation of that program focused on 40 executive competencies that represent unique skills military health care executives must possess. We evaluated various components of the five medical executive education courses currently offered within the MHS as well as JMESDP. We found that DoD uses a multipronged approach through job experience, education, training, professional certification, and core competency development. We also found that the definitions of the core competencies are vague and difficult to evaluate precisely. Currently, no uniform standards for medical executive skill attainment exist beyond general objectives listed in the core curriculum. Nevertheless, we found that the MHS is satisfactorily meeting its obligation. We offered recommendations to improve MHS’s ability to meet those objectives in the future, including strengthening HA/TMA oversight of JMESDP activities and formally designating the Joint Medical Executive Skills Institute as the training resource for the JMESDP.