I AM SO PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN - THANK YOU ALL !

If you get a chance, please look at this and I hope you feel the same way I do.

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/cities/moving-documentary-of-911-evacuation-by-boat-shows-resilience-of-cities/881?tag=nl.e660

Touch Keys with you later,

N.

See Federal Register/Vol. 76, No. 168/Tuesday, August 30, 2011/Notices  Page 53924/53925

Announcements

Merchant Mariner Medical Advisory Committee

The Coast Guard announced the first Merchant Mariner Medical Advisory Committee (MMMAC) meeting in the Federal Register.

The Meeting is scheduled for September 19-21 in Easton, Maryland at Marine Engineers Beneficial Association.

Click here for details - Federal Register notice.

To view archive announcements and reports please click here.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us through email at IASKNMC.

Touch Keys with you later,

N.

Hello to you all;

I have a blinding head ache and my blood pressure is so high at this moment that I am surprised I have not had a stroke.  SO IT IS TIME FOR MY SOAP BOX - AGAIN!

I have a client who was sent a “letter” from NMC’s MEB Branch stating that Mr. B needed additional information pertaining to his physical.  No problem, inconvenient for Mr. B but Ok.  In this letter it stated that he had “CHRONIC ATRIAL FIBRILLATION” more information was needed. Mr. B does not nor has he ever had any history of heart problems.

Here is the kicker, we pointed that out to the NMC-MEB and they sent us a request to “disregard” this as it was placed in his letter in error.  ERROR, of for heavens sake, Mr. B was and is livid but not as much as I am.  We sent all of the OTHER required information to the MEB and this morning I received a telephone call from the evaluator.  Asking me to once again look at the physical that I had submitted and note that on page such and such it states quite clearly that Mr. B does indeed have “CHRONIC ATRIAL FIBRILLATION”.  I looked at that page while she was on the telephone and low and behold, what she was looking at was a COPY OF NVIC-04-08, with EXAMPLES, that Mr. B had included with his package and I had just left in there when I submitted his application.  You can bet your booties that I will strip every package in the future of anything that is not EXACTLY what is called for in the application.

I want to apologize to Mr. B for allowing this to happen on my watch.  BUTTTTTTT - I also want to point out that even an iD10T should have been able to figure out that it was a copy of the NVIC and not part of the 9 page physical. 

Thanks for listening,

Touch Keys with you later,

N.

Hi all,

It appears it is time once again for my SOAP BOX.

I have a friend who is an instructor for a well known school and who’s license was do for renewal.  Ok, no problem right?  It has now been 6 weeks and guess what still no renewal.  History of events.

• He made application on his own (how simple should that be) for Renewal - Increase in Tonnage from 50 to 100 -Increase in Waters from Inland to Near Coastal (this is a very simple application and should have been completed and his MMC issued within days)
• He mailed it into the local REC (no problem)
• The Local REC forwarded his application to NMC (still no problem)
• NMC Received his application (no problem)
• Evaluator got the application to process AND THAT IS WHEN THE PROBLEMS BEGAN!
• Captain P sent in 520 days on near coastal waters and this should, without a doubt, qualified him for master near coastal according to 46 CFR 11.428
• Captain P sent 180 days on vessels over 51 GRT, which should have raised his tonnage to 100 GRT without a doubt, according to 46 CFR 11.422
• Evaluator worked on this problem and sent him a letter stating that he did not qualify for the near coastal because he needed 720 days (Hey Ditz, look at his file and ALL of his sea service)
• Captain P questioned this and asked for a re-evaluation
• After 2 weeks, Evaluator sent another letter stating he did not qualify for the near coastal quoting 46 CFR 11.422 (please read this CFR cite and tell me what in the hell this has to do with raising your tonnage?)
• Then the Evaluator stated he needed an additional 24 days on vessels over 34 GRT to qualify for the 100 GRT - Captain P had already sent in 180 days on over 51 GRT
• The Evaluator sent him another letter stating that his application had been re-evaluated and that he was not qualified for QMED.  HE DIDN’T EVEN APPLY FOR QMED for crying out load.
• Captain P, after may attempts to contact said evaluator via telephone and e-mail, got through (Oh happy days)
• The evaluator apologized for the paragraph in the letter concerning his QMED and said that it was an over sight on their part and it is very difficult to keep all of the evaluations straight.  OH MY GOD!  If he didn’t qualify for 100 GRT or QMED WHO’ S FILE WERE THEY LOOKING AT TO BEGIN WITH?
• The time has now been 5 weeks for this evaluation
• Captain P, spoke to said evaluator and was totally dumbfounded at the INEPTITUDE of this individual.  This evaluator LITERALLY DID NOT KNOW about 46 CFR 11.428 (master near coastal) so Captain P, literally had to TRAIN his evaluator on what the regulations are.
• His Evaluator said they would take another look at everything and get back to him by the end of the week, making this 6 weeks.

Captain P has spoken to his Senator’s office and has a letter written to be sent to them no matter the outcome of this. Captain P’s approach to this has been stellar and he has kept his temper in check, BUT, he must follow through and let his Senator know just how many jobs and how much income he has lost because of the INEPTITUDE of just this one evaluator, (think about all of the other evaluators who are doing the same thing to you).  The Senators, Congressmen and Representatives cannot help correct the problems at NMC unless they are made aware of the situation.

THIS IS YOUR LIVELIHOOD THAT NMC IS MUCKING ABOUT WITH.  BUT IF YOU DON’T CARE, DON’T SHARE.

Ok down off my soap box now, until later.  I deal with this sort of thing everyday but you should not have to.

Touch Keys with you later,

N.

Hey all, how are you?  Hope all is well with you.

Please go to the NMC website and look at the document titled New Format for Deck / Engine Examination Guide dated July 2011.  This is helpful when preparing to test for a license or document rating.  Their website is http://www.uscg.mil/nmc but y’all already knew that didn’t ya.

Touch Keys with you later,

N.

Hello everyone, I am wishing you all a very HAPPY AND SAFE 4TH OF JULY.

One of my clients pointed this out to me (thank you BW) and I needed to share it with all of the deckies out there because it is of major importance to you.

The title is QUALIFICATION VIA “THE HAWSEPIPE” FOR STCW ENDORSEMENTS AS OFFICER IN CHARGE OF A NAVIGATIONAL WATCH ON SHIPS OF 200 GRT/500 GT OR MORE.

You and view it on http://www.uscg. mil/nmc  Please do so.

Again have a happy and safe 4th.

Touch Keys with you later.

N.

 Here is the latest information from NMC.

Description

The US Coast Guard Homepage now has a direct link to the

NMC’s webpage - visit www.uscg.mil and

click on the Merchant Mariner Credentialing icon

at the bottom of the page.

The National Maritime Center

www.uscg.mil/nmc

Hello all,

Here is the latest from the National Maritime Center.  If you have not seen it and wish too please visit http://www.uscg.mil/nmc

The National Maritime Center is an ISO 9001:2008 Compliant Organization.
May 20, 2011

Update to the Mariner Medical Evaluation Form 719K
Recently the National Maritime Center (NMC) made several minor changes to the Mariner Medical Evaluation Form 719K due to several technical errors. Several weeks ago the NMC was contacted by the Star Center, Dania, Florida regarding inconsistencies with the USCG 719K Revision (01-09) form their members were having rejected at REC Miami. This identification of a problem with mariner credentialing processes is an excellent example of the partnership the NMC desires to have with industry and has led to the remedying of a true problem.

NMC took immediate actions to identify the problem and found out that there were some errors with the 719K form that was linked from the NMC’s webpage to the main Coast Guard webpage that were causing problems with mariners and their physicians ability to print the form once filled in. In addition, there were two versions of the form being used by mariners with very minor differences but were significant enough to affect a mariner’s application acceptance at REC Miami. NMC has since reworked the 719K form so that it is printable and also added pre-approved OMB/CG changes in the last section of page 9 which request the mariner’s Medical Practitioner’s: License Number, Office telephone, and Office address.

Until a final revision number is provided by OMB, NMC and all RECs are accepting 719K forms that have and do not have these three items only. What the REC and NMC is not accepting are any 719K forms that have been otherwise modified or altered by a third party. NMC encourages all mariners and their medical providers to use the current version of the 719K from the NMC’s webpage only as it contains all the requirements for a complete medical application located at http://www.uscg.mil/nmc/forms/medical/cg719k.pdf.

NMC would like to recognize and heartily thank Captain Jerry Pannell, Director, Member Training & Officer Development and Captain Phil Shullo, Director of Training at the Star Center for bringing this important matter to our attention.

Sincerely,

B.K. Eisentrout
Deputy Director

Touch Keys with you later.

N.

Well, all I can say is I HOPE THIS WORKS THIS TIME.  My experience has been that the Medical Evaluation Branch (MEB) has (had) a couple of very top notch people working there HOWEVER, the others were having problems reading the physical form at all.  I am really a “glass half full” type of person, but with what has been going on at NMC over the past couple of years, I had to change to a “glass half empty” person AND I DON’T LIKE THAT so once again I say ‘I HOPE THIS WORKS THIS TIME’.

April 12, 2011
Actions to Improve Mariner Medical Evaluations Processing
The Commanding Officer of the National Maritime Center (NMC) has made several changes within the Mariner Medical Evaluations Division in order to improve customer service, while ensuring marine and public safety remains the priority for Mariner credentialing at the NMC. The turnover of government medical evaluations personnel, coupled with a transition to a new medical services contractor, prompted the need for customer service improvements. That transition took place over the holidays and has been completed. Vacancies, and the contract transition, resulted in increases in the inventory and cycle time to process mariner medical fitness applications.
The following additional actions were taken to address mariner concerns with processing delays, specifically related to the medical portion of the application review, and to ensure mariner applications with issues are processed in a timely fashion:

Mariner Medical Point of Contact: The NMC has assigned a full-time, on-call government medical evaluator to receive calls from mariners and their physicians regarding their submitted applications. This new position handles calls relating to a mariner’s submitted medical fitness application and will assist both the mariner and their physicians pertaining to the mariner’s application and any additional documents sent to the mariner or requested by the Coast Guard. Some cases will be transferred to the actual evaluators if they are available, or to a higher level government reviewer to further assist with technical information needed to complete the mariner’s medical evaluation. When calling the mariner help desk, the mariner will be transferred to the medical point of contact for assistance. For those mariners using third-party advocates, mariners must have a third-party release to ensure privacy concerns are met.

Increase in Government Medical Personnel: Over the past 24 months, the Coast Guard has significantly increased the number of permanent government medical screeners, evaluators and reviewers. Some of the positions had been advertised for hire for as long as 18 months. Recently, qualified doctors and physician assistants were placed into the vacancies and are now onboard and contributing. At certain times, however, staff turnover occurs and the NMC makes every effort to quickly fill vacancies created when a government or contract employee decides to make a job change. The work for medical personnel in the Mariner Credentialing Program is primarily in the field of Occupational Health Medicine, which is an important discipline and often it is very difficult to find qualified personnel quickly. The NMC makes every effort to fill our vacancies as fast as possible within our established agency guidelines for hiring and contracting with the best-qualified personnel available.

New Medical Services Contract: In December of 2010, the Coast Guard awarded a new Medical Evaluations and Services contract to RGB Group Inc. of Miami, Florida. Many former employees were hired by RGB but during the transition month of January 2011 these employees took use or lose vacation time from their former company. These authorized absences were a function of the contract and needed to be completed as a part of the transition process. Adjustments to the review and processing of medical applications have been transitioned to the new contract provider and many revisions and improvements have been made to our internal guidance documents to improve the consistency of reviews.

Adjustments to Medical Screening Procedures: Within the past several weeks, the NMC has conducted processing reviews in the medical state of application processing Ready to be Evaluated Medical. These reviews have identified some measures for adjustment and alignment with the regulations and NVIC 04-08 and are already having positive impacts. Incomplete medical applications remain the single largest cause for delays. Mariners and their physicians can avoid these delays by correctly and completely providing information on medical conditions. The NMC call center can assist you with questions on medical application processing, as can the nearest Regional Exam Center. Updates will be made to the medical information on the NMC website to more clearly explain requirements and to improve our customer service in this area. Currently, however, the average net processing for mariners without medical issues or lower risk medical reviews remains at around 16 days. Interested parties can monitor the effect of these changes by visiting the NMC website and following the links to our monthly performance measures.
Sincerely,
//s//
Anthony S. Lloyd
Captain, U. S. Coast Guard
Commanding Officer

Touch Keys with you later,

N.

Fee Change Beginning May 1, 2011

Preparation fees have been revised, $200.00, this will now include:
Pre-evaluation
Package Preparation
Notary Service (if Applicable)
One half hour consulting
Postage

Since the inception of this company, three years ago, the National Maritime Center (NMC) has failed to achieve consistent evaluation practices.  Up to this time, we have provided many hours of unbilled consulting to our customers in a attempt to rectify that situation.

Therefore, we find it necessary to implement the following change.  Package Preparation as it now stands, will be eliminated.  Now, the”old” package preparation will include the following: Pre-evaluation; Postage; Notary service and up to 30 minutes of consulting services.

Should additional consulting services be required, our normal consulting fees will apply.  Our normal consulting fees, as posted on our website, remain at $200.00 for the first hour and then billed by the quarter hour there after.