Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston –
With a proven track record and increasing demand for its
services, the 59th Medical Wing Gateway Innovation Center deployed its mobile training
team to the San Antonio Military Medical Center at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort
Sam Houston April 25-29.
Thirty-one students, including 10 from other military
treatment facilities around the U.S., learned innovative problem-solving
techniques at the week-long course designed to help students and their sections
work smarter, better and faster.
“This is something we’ve been looking forward to; there’s
huge interest from our SAMMC team and others around the Air Force for the
course,” said Master Sgt. William Rapoza, 59th MDW Gateway Academy and
Innovation Center NCO in charge.
The center provides instruction on innovative problem
solving techniques, inspires people to challenge the status quo, and teaches
leadership skills that foster empowerment, trust and respect.
Since the first class graduated in January 2015, more than
300 Gateway graduates at the Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center at
JBSA-Lackland have been the catalysts behind 73 Rapid Improvement Events, more
than 200 “Just Do It” projects and 394 Lean Daily Management projects, saving
the Air Force more than $9.1 million, said Tech. Sgt. Vanessa Arthur, Gateway
Innovation Center NCO in charge.
“The overall goal of the Gateway is to get people looking at
processes with a different set of eyes. When students graduate, they go back to
their units with an enhanced skill set,” Arthur explained. “They’ll have new
problem-solving techniques, some new tools, and they can go back and look at
their processes and look for ways to add quality and value for the patient.”
Studying the same curriculum as the class offered at WHASC,
students in the mobile class received instruction from myriad experts in
innovation, process improvement, leadership and customer service.
“The class allowed me to gain more experience working with
Air Force members, and I was able to see how we can improve processes in our
joint work centers at SAMMC,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Anthony Wright, SAMMC
Nutrition Care Department NCO in charge of education and training.
“Also, with the course being held here made it more
accessible for Army personnel to attend,” Wright added.
The mobile course takes seven days to complete, including
five at the mobile location, and a two-day wrap-up session at WHASC.
It’s the same curriculum with one exception. “During the
regular nine-day course, we plug in project time. With the mobile class, we
take the project time out,” Rapoza said.
“Students first take the five-day class and then, in two
months, they come to WHASC for the two-day wrap-up. They’ll tour the San Antonio
Toyota plant, do the clinical research tour, and brief their projects,” he
added.
“As a young Airman, I am constantly told to be an innovative
thinker; the Gateway actually gives me the tools to be one,” said Airman 1st
Class June Bell, from the 47th Medical Group at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas.
“The Gateway also showed me how to come up with a plan, execute and pass on the
information to others.”
The 59th MDW will offer the next mobile class this summer at
the Medical Education and Training Campus on JBSA-Fort Sam Houston. The team
will continue to improve the course based on student feedback, and it hopes to
receive funding to carry the course to other Air Force military treatment
facilities.
Bringing the Gateway class to people outside of the 59th MDW
and San Antonio will bring the Air Force a little closer to achieving the
perfect patient experience, said Lt. Col. Stacey Van Orden, 59th MDW Business
Innovation Center chief and High Reliability Operations deputy chief.
“Individual and unit processes are part of the bigger
picture. You might not see patients on a day-to-day basis, but what you do
impacts that perfect patient experience,” she said. “The idea of the Gateway is
just to enhance that. Everything we do serves the patient; that’s why we’re
here.”
For more information about the Gateway Innovation Center,
call 292-8303.