For Official Use Only – Not for Public Release
Dear Commissioned Corps Officers,
Today we announced updated deployment and readiness procedures for all Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service (Corps) officers. This document provides a summary of the updates, implementation information, and additional resources.
Background: Commissioned Corps Directive (CCD) 121.02, “Deployment and Readiness,” dated 26 April 2019, authorizes the Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH) to establish requirements to ensure the readiness of Corps officers deployed to respond to urgent or emergency public health needs.
Commissioned Corps Instruction (CCI) 241.02, “Deployment of Corps Officers,” dated 2 October 2019, assigns the responsibilities and requirements that Corps officers must adhere to while on active duty, and prescribes procedures to ensure efficient deployment of officers in response to urgent or emergency public health needs.
Personnel Operations Memorandum (POM) 821.76, “Deployment Procedures,” dated 3 October 2019, specifies deployment procedures for Corps officers responding to urgent or emergency public health care needs.
These procedures go into effect 25 October 2019.
Key Points for Corps Officers:
- Commissioned Corps Headquarters (CCHQ) will conduct a thorough review of the current Tiered Response Structure. Until further notice, officers will remain with their currently assigned teams, maintain basic readiness, and remain ready to deploy during their on-call months.
- CCHQ will work with Health and Human Services (HHS) Agency liaisons to notify supervisors of the procedure changes. Specifically, CCHQ will inform liaisons that the ASH can deploy officers assigned to an HHS OPDIV/STAFFDIV without supervisory approval.
-
- Officers assigned to non-HHS Agencies will continue to be deployed in accordance with the Memorandum of Agreement/Understanding between the Corps and the non-HHS Agency.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about these changes are available on the Commissioned Corps Management Information System FAQ webpage. If you have additional questions, please contact the Readiness and Deployment Branch at RedDOG@hhs.gov.
Regards,
Susan M. Orsega
RADM, USPHS
Director, CCHQ
For Official Use Only – Not for Public Release