These wait times are insane. Do these evaluators only look at two a day or something?
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Right⌠Get some elementary school teachers to grade these physicals or something. Maybe change the physical exam to a bubble format where the examiner can lay a cheat sheet template over the physicals to ensure the correct bubbles were filled & move on. I hate to say it but AI could probably do it a lot more efficiently, faster & probably cheaper.
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I submitted my renewal (no medical concerns) 25 Jun, received notice itâs in the mail 08 Aug.
Because I am curious like that I looked to see what the average rate was. The NMC publishes their stats: Performance Stats
Hereâs the relevant one for medical certificates:
Now, based on a regular 52 week year, there are 260 work days, minus 11 federal holidays, minus a minimum 13 days of annual leave (up to 26, plus an additional 13 days of sick leave). So letâs say a federal employee actually works 223 days a year. That means that there are 263 applications that come in every work day, on average. Now I have no idea how many staffers they have in their medical evaluation department but if they spent 20 minutes (on average) on each application theyâd need 13 staffers to clear the daily backlog, and that is assuming 100% efficiency. So the big unknowns are how many people are working applications and how long the average processing time for an application is.
But I guess the crazier number than any of that fun with math is that there were a grand total of 12 denials in 2023. Thatâs a 99.979% passing rate. Less than 9% require a waiver. What exactly is the point of medical certificates (and countless threads on this site) if the standards are this easy to meet?
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Only 12 people didnât qualify for USCG medical cards in 2023?
That shows that either: (1) mariners are so healthy that the entire Medical card program is a waste of time and resources; or (2) that the Medical Card program is so incompetent that it cannot detect mariners with serious health problems.
âAverage net processing timeâ 7.1 days.
âCustomer Satisfactionâ 88%
Either the USCG is doing a fantastic job, or somebody is lying and cooking the books.
Itâs long past time for the USCG to stop making unnecessary work for themselves (and us) and just let the doctors that do the physicals issue the Medical Cards, the same as the DOT does for truck drivers.
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Never understood or cared for this med cert nonsense from day one. They need to scrap it and go back to the âroutine/pre-employment physicalâ for mariners. Theyâre clearly overburdened on their end by the mess they created for themselves with what should be simple paperwork â and we suffer on our end because of it.
But how else are you going to prove that you have a pulse?
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Careful, Anderson Kelly is a can of worms you donât want to open.
True.
If you pass a physical and are issued an active license to sail on I donât see why thatâs not good enough. Itâs not like the MEDCERT is a better or more reliable form of proof of physical fitness⌠itâs just another piece of paper with dates we have to keep track of.
Triathletes get theirs held up for nonsense while fatass chain smokers with insulin pumps hanging out of their pockets who need an elevator to go up or down one deck slide rrrrright on by.
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STCW and foreign port state control require the medical cards.
In the UK an âapproved doctorâ issues the medical cert on the spot, and thatâs the end of it.
In Canada an âapproved doctorâ issues a âprovisional med certâ on the spot thatâs good for 60 days. About a month later the permanent med cert comes in the mail from Transport Canada in Ottawa.
Hmm, maybe we should leave well enough alone. Otherwise the NMC might farm out medical certificates to another federal agency like the USPHS, and weâd have to pay $125 for a nonsense screening. Theyâd probably come up with some proprietary âSailorâs Internal Condition Checkâ Card thatâd weâd have to carrryâŚ
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I like the way you do this with FAA. You walk into the doctors, pass or not pass your medical, and walk out with the cert, ready to fly that very moment. And thatâs it. Physician sends a copy to FAA on their end. Done.
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Yes. Thatâs how it needs to be done.
The USCG NMC is obviously not competent to manage issuing Medical Certs.
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88% to 67% satisfaction in a few months. Iâm surprised they didnât lie about it:
https://www.dco.uscg.mil/Portals/9/NMC/pdfs/reports/survey/2024/survey.pdf?
Thatâs already the going rate for a DOT/USCG physical if you donât have a primary care doc thatâll just charge your visit fee.
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Iâve never failed a uscg physical nor came close to it. While I now fast the evening before & no coffee until itâs over the next morning, when I was in my 20âs Iâd show up for them with 4 hours sleep nearly drunk from the night before. If by some crazy circumstances I do eventually fail one Iâll throw it away & keep going to different clinics until I get a passing one to send to the Coast Guard. Those 12 denials had to be from newbies who donât know how the system works or from out of shape mariners looking for an LTD insurance payout. I think some people can get disability from the gov or insurance companies if they canât pass the physical.
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