Page 8: of Maritime Logistics Professional Magazine (Q3 2011)

8 Maritime Professional 3Q 2011The United States remains a nation criticallyreliant on safe, secure, and successful maritimeoperations. Work in the maritime trades remains the foundation of the American economy and mariners are THE strength within that net- work, which is also referred to as the Maritime Transportation System (MTS). The National Maritime Center?s (NMC) relationship with each of the nation?s mariners is sacrosanct ? our goal is to keep mariners working while enforcing compliance with the laws, regulations, and policies that govern the Mariner Credentialing Program (MCP). As the MCP evolves, we absolutely seek to maintain and build strong partnerships with all of our stakeholders to make continuous customer service improvements. The tradeoff between compliance and customer service is a balancing act that depends on a com-mitment by all parties involved to serve mariners better than in times past. Period. When I showed up at the NMC, I had the distinct honor of receiving, on behalf of the NMC crew, the Coast Guard?s Alexander Hamilton Award for performance management from Admiral Papp, Commandant of the Coast Guard, who sponsors the award. His guidance to me is to not be satisfied with yesterday?s achievements. My expectation as the new Commanding Officer is to build on our recent successes by continuing to improve every aspect of our operations at the NMC. Translating this intent into opera- tions is what the NMC is doing today. For example, we recently published our perform- ance report for the month of June, 2011. That report shows that June was the first month in which the MCP achieved a processing average of 15.8 days for an entire month. We could not have achieved this lower average net processing time had we not made recent improvements in medical evaluations, staffing, and processing as well. PROCESSING SERVICES We recognized areas that needed improvement and recently made changes within the Mariner Medical EvaluationsDivision. Customers voiced their concerns and we listened. Staff was added to improve customer service in the Mariner Call Center so mariners and their physicians could better dis-cuss their medical application issues. We successfully filled government medical evaluations staff positions while also transitioning our new Medical Evaluations and Services con- tract to RGB Group Inc., of Miami, Florida. That transition took place during the last six months and our new team mem- bers are well attuned to NMC processes and procedures.When staff turnover occurs, the NMC makes every effort to InsightsStriving for ExcellenceUnited States Coast Guard?s National Maritime CenterBy Captain Anthony S. LloydMP #3 (1-17):MP Layouts 8/17/2011 8:20 PM Page 8