As he walked back out of my office, Charlie turned and said; "Make me one of these." So I proceeded to plagiarize the regulation and make it our own... one for Mountain Home Air Force Base Hospital. Over the next few months we operated the cost center management program according to the regulation, assigning managers from each department, conducting regular meetings plus establishing and tracking action items. It went well and our eventual Tactical Air Command staff "advisors" agreed.
About three years later, I had just finished an AFIT sponsored MHA program at the Medical College of Virginia and was updating our resource management program. I was assigned to Fairchild Hospital and was working for then Lieutenant Colonel Paul McNally. I got my hands once again on the Cunningham paper, tailored it to our hospital, and then organized our cost center management program accordingly. Not long after, we were visited by the medical inspector general team from Norton Air Force Base. The inspector for our Resource Management program turned out to be none other than Lieutenant Colonel Terry Cunningham. Needless to say, our hospital resource management program did well.
It was a solid circle of management; from Terry to Charlie to me and eventually back to Terry. I'm pretty sure that regulation got a lot of other circulation as well.
Note: Charlie Brown retired as a Colonel having served as SGA at Space Command, the Air Force Academy and Lakenheath, England. Charlie was a walk around, positive style, administrative whiz and master delegator ("bend them arrows"). Terry Cunningham retired as a Colonel having served as SGA (Administrator) at the Air Force's biggest facility, Wilford Hall Medical center (Noteworthy that Terry's son would retire after serving in the exact same capacity some years later). Terry was a great organizer and mentor with an upbeat approach. Paul McNally would retire as a Colonel after serving as the top logistics MSC for the Air Force Medical Service. Paul mastered at deciding the right thing to do and finding a way to get it done despite any opposing regulations. They all had many other attributes but these stand out in my mind.
Damn. I sure got to work for and with some talented folks back then. In reflection, my only regret is leaving early as a Major after serving half my 24 years enlisted and the other half commissioned. I missed (still do) our common purpose and ability to prioritize the humanitarian ethic over the business ethic though both were and are critical. In my following 25 years or so as a healthcare consultant to dozens of for-profit and not-for-profit healthcare organizations, I never did come across as great a bunch of people as those three and those who served with them. I could have hung around the Corps much, much longer and still been a happy camper.
