The Health Services Professional Advisory Committee
The Health Services Professional Advisory
Committee
(HS-PAC) Charter
- MISSION
- RELATIONSHIP OF THE HS-PAC TO
THE UNITED STATES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE (USPHS)
- OBJECTIVES
- FUNCTIONS
- MEMBERSHIP
- NOMINATION PROCESS
- TERM OF APPOINTMENT
- CHAIRPERSON AND CHAIR-ELECT
- CHIEF PROFESSIONAL OFFICER (CPO)
- OPERATIONS AND PROCEDURES
(I) MISSION
The Health Services Professional Advisory Committee
(HS-PAC) was created by, and is to advise and serve the Surgeon General and the
Public Health Service through the Chief Professional Officer (CPO) on issues
relating to the professional practice and the personnel activities, civil
service (CS) and commissioned corps (CC), of the Health Services Category.
Working through the CPO, the HS-PAC provides similar advisory assistance to the
Chief Professional Officer (HS-CPO) and, upon request, to the Operating
Divisions (OPDIVS) or Staffing Divisions (STAFFDIVS) of the Public Health
Service (PHS), and to non-PHS programs that routinely use PHS personnel.
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(II) RELATIONSHIP OF THE HS-PAC TO THE
UNITED STATES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE (USPHS)
In carrying out its responsibilities, the HS-PAC operates
in a staff capacity. It does not substitute for line management or in any way
exercise the prerogatives of the respective operating programs. Thus, the
HS-PAC advises the CPO, who in turn advises the Surgeon General. While HS-PAC
members are chosen from the respective PHS OPDIVS, they neither represent OPDIV
management nor speak for the OPDIV. They are knowledgeable professionals who
represent a cross-section of the interests, concerns, and responsibilities of
the professionals in Agencies and organizations staffed by PHS personnel.
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(III) OBJECTIVES
The
HS-PAC serves in a resource and advisory capacity through the CPO to assist in
the development, coordination, and evaluation of activities related to the
professional disciplines it represents in the PHS with the specific objectives
of:
- Identifying and
facilitating resolution of issues of concern as they relate to the Health
Services (HS) category and related civil service professional disciplines.
- Assessing PHS personnel
needs and assisting in meeting these needs through recruitment, training,
utilization, and recognition of officers in the HS category and related
civil service professional disciplines.
- Developing position
papers, statistical reports, and/or guidelines where appropriate, in order
to advise and comment on matters relating to the personnel issues and
professional practice of the HS category and related civil service
professional disciplines.
- Promoting the
development and utilization of health services professionals by the PHS
and other Government programs.
- Promoting cooperation
and communication among health services professionals and other health
professionals.
- Promoting all aspects of
the HS category and related civil service professionals throughout the
OPDIVS of the PHS.
- Providing liaison among
professional disciplines within and among PHS components, and providing advice
and consultation to the OPDIV Heads and operating programs upon request.
- Advocating for best
practices within the various disciplines of the HS category.
- Facilitating
relationships with professional organizations and academia to promote the
linkage between public health and the professions and disciplines of the
USPHS.
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(IV) FUNCTIONS
In carrying out its broad mission and objectives, the
functions of the HS-PAC shall include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Provide general
professional advice and recommendations:
- Review and comment on
issues referred to the HS-PAC through the CPO by the Surgeon General,
OPDIV Heads, and/or STAFFDIV Heads.
- Deliberate issues,
develop findings, and present recommendations through the CPO to the
Surgeon General.
- Provide advice on
professional aspects of the HS category, i.e., new technologies,
regulations, curricula, roles, etc.
- Provide advice on
ethical and professional standards issues.
- Review and provide recommendations concerning proposed or
needed changes to appointment standards and professional requirements,
e.g., licensure required to maintain high quality staff.
- Act
as a primary resource for career development:
- Advise on CC and CS
practices concerning career development.
- Advise on operating
practices concerning the appropriate/optimum use of personnel designed to
best meet PHS needs and the needs of the individual.
- Advise on issues
related to PHS promotion practices and, for commissioned officers,
assimilation into the Regular Corps for the HS category.
- Formulate criteria for
the selection of candidates for training and/or other career development
options.
- Identify both continuing and long-term intramural/extramural
education needs of the HS category, and identify and recommend training
and/or experience opportunities designed to meet these needs.
- Provide
advice and assistance on staffing issues:
- Assess and project
need for the HS category staffing levels, both CC and CS, throughout the
PHS.
- Provide advice on the goals,
objectives, and procedures designed to meet the PHS staffing needs and
assist in category retention initiatives.
- Provide guidance for
recruitment to the short-term student affiliation programs (COSTEP,
summer students, etc.).
- Develop, and/or review
and critique, HS category-specific PHS recruitment materials, procedures,
and programs.
- Help establish
networks of current, as well as former, PHS professionals, who can assist
and facilitate recruitment activities.
- Provide guidance to
approved PHS “Associate Recruiters” and other recruiters concerning the
recruitment of qualified candidates to the HS category and related civil
service professional disciplines.
- Assist in the development of orientation materials for newly
hired Health Services category professionals and provide
advice/recommendations concerning orientation programs.
- Communicate
and encourage appropriate use of awards/recognition systems:
- Identify, establish,
and help administer special professional, HS category- specific
awards.
- Maintain cognizance of the existing CS and CC award programs
and opportunities and encourage the nomination of qualified individuals
for such awards.
- Serve
as a communication link and information resource for the category:
- Communicate to the
CC/CS HS category staff important information concerning professional,
ethical, and technical issues.
- Encourage individual
membership in, and involvement with, professional organizations and
societies in order to promote open communication with non-federal
colleagues.
- Ensure the distribution
of minutes and/or other HS-PAC developed materials to the extent possible
and appropriate to CC and CS staff. Ensure the availability of HS-PAC
minutes to other PACs and the Office of the Surgeon General through the
HS-PAC website.
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(V) MEMBERSHIP
- Basic Eligibility
Requirements: Members must be full-time CC or CS personnel, and at the
time they are nominated and appointed to the HS-PAC and meet the
eligibility requirements for initial appointment to the HS category and
personnel systems. In addition, all
CC personnel must meet the Office of Force Readiness and Deployment (OFRD)
basic readiness standards at the time they are nominated and appointed to
the HS-PAC and throughout their term or service on the HS-PAC.
- Staff from the Office of
the Secretary (OS) and the Office of Public Health and Science (OPHS) may
serve on the HS-PAC providing that they recuse themselves from voting on
issues and decisions that may have the appearance of a conflict of
interest with respect to their duty assignments.
- Size of the PAC: The
HS-PAC shall have no fewer than 15 and no more than 20 voting
members.
- Organizational
Representation: In order to provide the range of experiences and
perspectives necessary for addressing issues before the HS-PAC, every
effort must be made to have the broadest representation possible among all
agencies that are routinely staffed by Commissioned Corps Officers of the
HS category.
- Geographic
Considerations: The HS-PAC will have, as voting members, at least two
individuals whose regular duty station is geographically removed by a
distance of 75 or more miles from the Washington, D.C.,
metropolitan area.
- Gender and Minority
Representation: The HS-PAC will make a concerted effort to include both
men and women and racial and ethnic minorities in the composition of its
membership.
- Personnel System: The
HS-PAC will make a concerted effort to include civil service personnel in
the composition of its membership.
- Professional Seniority:
The HS-PAC will have as a voting member a minimum of one individual who at
the time of appointment to the HS-PAC has less than 5 years of
professional experience.
- Professional Discipline
Composition: Cognizant of the fact that the HS-PAC is structured around the
PHS Commissioned Corps defined professional categories which encompass
more than one major professional discipline, to the extent possible, the
HS-PAC should contain at least one voting member who possesses the
requisite credentials for each of the respective subcategories that make
up the HS category. To facilitate selection of members from the various
professional disciplines, the HS category will be divided into three
subcategories: (1) Clinical, (2) Health Administration and Health
Education and (3) Basic and Applied Sciences, based on commissioning
degree. When a new discipline is added to the Health Services category, it
shall be assigned to the appropriate subcategory, as determined by the
HS-PAC.
- Ex-Officio Members
(non-voting): The Chief Professional Officer is an ex-officio member of
the HS-PAC [see IX (1)]. The JOAG Representative is an ex-officio member
of the HS-PAC. The former chair may
serve 1 additional year as an ex-officio member of the HS-PAC [see VIII
(3)]. The HS-PAC may identify other individuals and request that they
serve as ex-officio members.
- Liaison
Members (non-voting): The HS-PAC may identify individuals to serve in a
liaison capacity to provide information or assist with activities, e.g.,
staff from the Office of the Secretary (OS) or the Office of Public Health
and Science (OPHS).
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(VI) NOMINATION PROCESS
- Annually, the HS-PAC
will solicit, through newsletters and other appropriate means, nominations
for vacancies on the HS-PAC from all individuals in the HS category and
represented civil service professional disciplines. Self-nominations will
be solicited. The names will be transmitted by the CPO to the nominees'
respective OPDIV Head who may endorse the nominee(s) or provide alternate
or additional nominations meeting the general representation requirements
demonstrated by the original nominees. The OPDIV Head's response will be
reviewed by the HS-PAC and CPO who will identify, by name, those highly
qualified to fill anticipated vacancies. A final list of nominees will be
sent by the CPO to the Surgeon General for selection and approval.
- This nomination process
shall be conducted so that the final nomination package is available for
the Surgeon General's consideration no less than 60 calendar days prior to
the expiration of the regular term of the member.
- Should the need arise to
fill a vacancy for an unexpired term of a voting member, the vacancy shall
be filled through the annual nomination process.
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(VII) TERM OF APPOINTMENT
- HS-PAC members will be selected
for a 3 year term. The terms will be staggered to ensure rotational
balance.
- Once a member has
accumulated a lifetime total of 6 years of service on the HS-PAC, they are
not eligible for reappointment. Terms of office may be served
consecutively at the discretion of the HS-PAC.
- Alternates: Cognizant of
the demands of the member's primary work responsibilities and the HS-PACs
need to conduct business, the HS-PAC has the option of establishing
procedures to allow each voting member to appoint, and inform the
Chairperson of, a single individual from the same OPDIV or professional
discipline who can serve as his/her alternate. Such alternates shall have
voting privileges when serving in the place of the primary member. It is
the responsibility of the primary HS-PAC member to keep the alternate
fully informed and knowledgeable of the HS-PAC's activities. Any OPDIV
clearance or approval requirements for travel/per will have to be handled
within the OPDIV by the primary HS-PAC member. All alternates must meet
OFRD standards.
- Attendance: Any member
of the HS-PAC who frequently misses meetings without just cause can, at
the discretion of the HS-PAC Chair and in consultation with the CPO, be
asked to voluntarily resign from the HS-PAC, or the HS-PAC Chair in consultation
with the CPO can initiate a request to the Surgeon General to terminate
said membership and so inform the OPDIV Head.
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(VIII) CHAIRPERSON AND CHAIR-ELECT
- The Chairperson will be
elected by the voting membership of the HS-PAC.
- Term of the Chairperson:
The Chairperson will serve a 1-year term.
- A Chair-elect will be
elected by the membership of the HS-PAC so that after one year in this
capacity the Chair-elect automatically becomes the Chairperson.
- Term of appointment: If
the term of the Chairperson coincides with expiration of that individual's
membership on the HS-PAC, they may serve 1 additional year as an
ex-officio member of the HS-PAC provided the OPDIV Head is informed and
concurs with the extension, unless reappointed as a regular member per the
provisions of Section (VI).
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(IX) CHIEF PROFESSIONAL OFFICER (CPO)
- HS-PAC Membership: The
HS Chief Professional Officer shall be a non-voting ex-officio member of
the HS-PAC.
- Relationship with
HS-PAC: All output of the HS-PAC, be it correspondence, reports, minutes
of its proceedings, or other, must be transmitted through the CPO, who, as
he/she may deem appropriate, may provide concurring or nonconcurring
comments but may not stop or unduly delay such transmittals.
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(X) OPERATIONS AND PROCEDURES
- The HS-PAC shall develop
its own internal operations and procedures (e.g., bylaws). These shall
include, at a minimum provisions covering the following:
- Operational year:
Determine the day and month chosen as the beginning of the operational
year.
- Frequency of meeting:
Meetings will be held once per quarter at a minimum.
- Agenda: A meeting
agenda and appropriate background material is to be made available to the
members.
- Records and Reporting:
- Minutes of each HS-PAC
meeting will be developed and approved by the HS-PAC members.
- Minutes and reports of
the HS-PAC will be distributed in accord with Item IV (5) (C)
FUNCTIONS.
- The HS-PAC must
establish a system to maintain a permanent file of the official minutes
and reports of the HS-PAC.
- Executive Secretary: The Executive Secretary must be a member
of the category but is not required to be a voting HS-PAC member.
- Quorum: A Quorum
consists of at least 50 percent of the HS-PAC's voting membership. An
alternate attending in lieu of the member shall be counted in determining
the quorum requirement.
- Voting: Where voting is
required or appropriate, i.e., election of the Chair, action will be
determined by a simple majority of those voting members present.
- Committees: Where the
HS-PAC elects to establish standing or ad hoc committees, said membership
may include non-HS-PAC members provided that the chairman of the committee
is a voting member of the HS-PAC.
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Revision February 2006
Approved:
____________________________ Date_______________
Richard H. Carmona
VADM. USPHS
United States Surgeon General
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