Is a missed appointment worth an article 15?

SGT (Join to see) , the reason why the Army makes such a big deal about missed appointments is because of the way we manage resources. First off, medical care is a finite resource. We only have so much of it to go around. So when you make an appointment, we are committing those resources to you, and that means someone else cannot access it. So that person has to wait or get's sent to a civilian provider which is not cheap. If you opt to miss it without canceling, and we are not able to fill that appointment (which is usually the case), that slot is essentially wasted AND we still have to pay for the person who was sent downtown because you took up a slot that they could have used. Now multiply that by hundreds if not thousands of missed appointments across the DoD. THAT is why we lose money as a whole.

SGT (Join to see), let me turn your question around a little. Does not being at your appointed place of duty constitute corrective action or non-judicial punishment? If the Army loses money because of a missed appointment is not relevant. What is relevant is that a Soldier was not at their appointed place of duty. Commands treat these offenses differently. Some will verbally counsel, written counsel, or initiate UCMJ.

The Army has made it a priority across the board for commands to cut down/eliminate missed appointments. Commands in turn place emphasis into correcting the problem. Some commands feel it is appropriate to initiate UCMJ actions for Soldiers who are not at their appointed place of duty.

I can say as a supervisor that I have given one for missing an appointment, a dental appointment actually, and ultimately it led to a referred OER and a early retirement for said officer. It was a sad event and one I really wish had not happened, but this officer just refused to go to appointments. I had been chewed on at C&S week after week and month after month and it had command visibility. Obviously the officer felt he had better things to do, which is what he told me for the last 9 and half months. I grounded the aviator and barred him from flying aircraft until the appointment was kept. I will not go into what transpired later, actually immediately after that, but needless to say, he can make civilian appointments now and the Army is a better place for it.

I don't think an ART 15 for the 1st missed appointment is warranted, because what happens when that senior NCO misses one, even if by mistake. I believe a counseling for the 1st missed appointment with your NCO Support Channel knee deep in your schedule to ensure you don't miss the next one. They wrote an article here at Ft. Gordon about it. It is amazing how many many people have missed appointments in a year and how much that costs for the missed appointments.

It ain't army....but the Navy has a different point of view. Missing an appointment is often viewed in the same vein as missing ship's movement. Trust me...you do not want to miss ship's movement cuz unless the bridge fell on you on the way to base or all the tunnels are shut down for a massive accident or hell just froze over and you were right in the middle....you can count on an Article 15 at the very least and probably more. Missing an appointment is a big deal - really it is.

Think of it in another way - if you want to be seen as a professional who can be relied upon to do the job right the first time and be on time every time then don't miss your appointments. Be responsible for your own actions. Don't rely on some Sgt or the head cheese to keep track of things for you - do it yourself. If you can't keep track of your own appointments - how am I supposed to consider you one of those in line for promotion? If you can't manage your own appoinments, be there on time, keep your COC aware of what's going on (and NOT the other way around) then don't be standing in front of my desk asking for favors.

'Nuff said.

Off soapbox...resume the big suck.

Article 15 for a missed appointment and for missing a 1st appointment! Really! Getting Soldiers to their appointed place of duty be it the motor pool, promotion board, appointments, that's NCO leader's business. I will be you that the squad leader, Section leader, PSG and 1SG would make damn sure a Soldier would not miss an appointment with the Bn or Bde CSM. The other half of that is teaching your soldiers why it's important that they don't miss their appointments (their personal health, care, and costs). Leadership should be making sure EVERYONE is the unit understands the dollars and cents problem the Army faces. This is not being done. With cuts in installation infrastruture maintenance, TDYs, training etc, Soldiers need to know and understand. They should be getting it from the unit and organizational leadership, not CNN, MSNBC, or FOX. Fear of an Art 15 is one way of doing it...but really! That's not leadership, that coersion. AS leaders you manage your Soldiers time just as the unit does with it's training schedule. I can not see this being a problem in any unit if the unit NCO leadership is effective and doing it's job. As a squad leader I didn't need my Section Leader to make me aware of one of my Soldiers appointments, I made him aware. The same applied as you move thru the ranks as Section Leader, PSG, and 1SG. Here's the flip side. All responsibility does not fall on the leadership. The Soldier also has responsibility. If the leadership has reminded the Soldier the day of and he/she misses it, they are full responsible. The leadership did not fail, the Soldier fail. It seems that in many cases today, when a Soldier fails, this chain of command is also called in get reamed as well. This is wrong. Soldiers fail from time to time, sometimes because they choose to fail and sometimes, "shit happens"! Correct it and move on, let's not make the same mistake again. But an Article 15 for missing an appointment....that's a leadership failure! Yes, Soldiers missed appointments in my unit when I was a 1SG, and if (rarely) the Commander asked me what was up, I informed it of what happened and that it was already in the process of being fixed. The thought of an Article 15 would never enter the conversation. I had a 1SG in Korea who felt that an Art 15 was the unit solution to Soldiers failing to get back to camp before curfew. I was a fairly new arriving PSG, when it happened to one of my Soldiers. We got into a very heated verbal battle over it and wound up going to the Commander over it. 1SG solution..ART 15, restriction, reduction and fine. My solution, Work for me every evening after duty for 2 weeks filling 100 sandbags along my motor pool line to help cut the wind in the winter along our vehicle line. After also explaining to CDR/1SG that this is a married E4 with a child, with the same bills we all have, split income with him being here...are we solving a problem or creating a bigger one. Mine cost no money, cost the Soldier time, work (cold as hell in Korea in Jan) and the learning experience of making sure he got back on post ahead of curfew. If you NCOs are just bending over and going along with the Art 15 option for missing an appointment, you're doing your Soldier an injustice, you've become a follower to poor leadership practice, and you're most likely a part of creating a bigger problem. A Soldier who does not have any confidence in his immediate leaders. Trust me, you can take a little heat from the 1SG a whole more than your Soldiers. Their respect for you will grow immensely. You can't prevent an Art 15, but you sure can let them know how you feel, it's long term negative impact and be on a Soldiers record always...for a missed appointment! Just an old timers opinion! WTH has is my Army coming too!

And what about my time when I sit there for 30,45,60 minutes waiting to be seen for a scheduled appointment- Is anyone going to get an Article 15 for wasting my time????????? Probably NOT!! It really sucks when so called rules are one sided!!!!

In the civilian world you get charged for those missed appointments - big time. Lately some of my doctors have even increased the cancellation time from 24 to 48 hours. I rarely, if ever miss an appointment. I got a flat the morning of one of my appointments and had to cancel, the office wouldn't take the circumstances into account and I was billed $75 for my troubles on top of having to pay the co-pay a week later when I was able to reschedule. To top it off, I waited 30 minutes past my rescheduled appointment time in the waiting room because the doctor was running behind. The office staff simply thought it was funny when I wrote them a bill for $75 for my wasted time.

I wish it were the reverse in the civilian world because I'd be handing out Article 15s to the doctors who make you wait an hour or more - which seems to be, pardon the pun, common practice nowadays. A lot of times I have no choice but to use my lunch for an appointment. When you arrive 10 minutes prior to and are still sitting in the waiting room 45 minutes after your appointment time, that's just wrong. When you throw in travel time back and forth, my last appointment cost me 3 hours to barely spend 10 minutes with the doctor.

SGT (Join to see), as for whether it is worth an Article 15? That would depend. I would say jumping straight to an Art 15 as a punishment is a bit much, unless there has been an issue either with the individual or collectively at a post with appointments being routinely missed. At that point, commanders need to use the tools available to get that under control. If it takes handing out Art 15's, then so be it.

Welcome to the peacetime military. Let's see what other things we can think of that we can use to drum out anyone who doesn't fit the bureaucratic OCD mold.