Improving the deployment of Army health care professionals

The Army Medical Department's Professional Filler System was developed in 1980 to support continuous overseas contingency operations while simultaneously balancing the Army's requirement to maintain a healthy force, deploy a medical force to support military operations, and manage/meet access-to-care demands for all military health system beneficiaries. PROFIS allows health care providers to practice in a military treatment facility when not deployed, which contributes to the maintenance of their medical and technical skills. The PROFIS Deployment System, developed in 2005, is an internal management system that is used to battle roster deploying units with the correct PROFIS personnel so that the U.S. Army Medical Command can plan proactively for deployments. Recently, there have been concerns over how PROFIS affects the medical readiness and availability of providers for training with the unit preparing to deploy. This report describes the functionality of the Army's PROFIS in the current operating environment and assesses potential modifications or improvements to the system. Using a literature review, interviews, a survey, and administrative data, this research sought to identify and understand the effect of PROFIS, and deployments more broadly, on providers and other military personnel. The study also assessed modifications and alternatives to the current PROFIS that might address the identified issues.