OCTOBER 28, 2025 – Naval Hospital (NH) Jacksonville Management of Information Department (MID) was recently awarded the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) Captain Joan Dooling Award for Information Professional Team of the Year for 2024.
The award was given out during the 2025 Defense Health Information Technology Symposium at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee.
“Our success is rooted in teamwork. Whether navigating complex projects or supporting one another through daily operations, we operate with a shared purpose and mutual respect,” said Naval Hospital Jacksonville MID Chief Information Officer Buck Richburg.
The awards package that was submitted emphasizes the department’s successes in the groundbreaking system for the Digital Front Door virtual health system. The hospital served as one of five venture sites, showcasing advancements in virtual healthcare delivery. It has revolutionized patient care by providing more accessible and efficient healthcare services.
“In my opinion, I believe Mr. Richburg was instrumental for all our recent successes. He has had a hand in laying the foundation of this department in its current state, the personnel, policies, and direction,” said MID Deputy Chief Information Officer Craig Wilson. “His future perspective of where MID should be and how to get there keeps us all on the go. In closing I know I am not alone when I say, I love to come to work, and I love working with the team we have here.”
Other systems implemented by MID include a Cisco Unified Call Manager as well as revolutionized the Military Treatment Facility (MTF) Call Centers by enabling the use of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for all call center operations. The project significantly enhanced the capabilities of 80 call center agents, allowing them to deliver exceptional service through more efficient queue handling and call routing. Supervisors gained access to critical call center metrics, such as peak call times, queue wait times, and daily call volumes, empowering informed decisions on staffing and availability. These enhancements not only improved the efficiency and reliability of the call centers but also laid the foundation for future scalability.
By the numbers, the MID team successfully upgraded more than 3,000 workstations to Windows 11. They migrated more than 2,000 users to OneDrive. A system administrator position was converted to the server team, reducing one contract by $640,000 and self-migrated to SharePoint Online with zero issues.
“It’s this spirit of collaboration that continues to set us apart and drive our impact across the Navy Medicine community,” said Richburg. “We don’t just work together, we win together – and this award is proof.”
The Captain Joan Dooling Award recognizes exceptional contributions to Navy Medicine’s IT, information management, and informatics mission, honoring individuals and teams who advance operational readiness and healthcare support. Capt. Joan Dooling was a pioneer in health care IT and informatics.
This isn’t the first achievement for the department. According to Richburg, the department has won this award four previous times, as well as being named, “DHA Cyber Security Team of the Year.” By winning this award, the team is not eligible for submission for another three years.
“This award simply highlights the expertise of our amazing information technology professionals we have at Naval Hospital Jacksonville,” said Naval Hospital Jacksonville Director Capt. Craig Malloy. “Many outside of the MID realm don’t realize all the certification processes they have to go through, while still providing fantastic customer service and improving patient care. I’m proud to lead these information pioneers.”
Story by Julie Lucas
Naval Hospital Jacksonville