The work of a Navy Medicine comptroller impacts the entire command, as they administer the myriad acquisitions, logistics, and manpower issues throughout the fiscal year.

A little innovative thinking can help to assist in the overlapping process of such budgetary management, and Naval Hospital Bremerton's (NHB) deputy comptroller can readily cite an example.

"A project that I implemented when I first came aboard at NHB was the monitoring and right-sizing of contract execution," said Lt. Matthew Ozanich. "At NHB, we track anywhere from 150 to 200 contracts for goods and services on any given fiscal year. This is everything from lab reagents to contracted labor and delivery nurses. The risk in renewing or creating a new contract is that we must set aside command funds for the life of the contract - no more than one year - because our funds expire every year until we receive new allotments every October. The problem was that several contracts were being over- or under-funded on the front end, and no one would realize we had overshot or undershot a contract until the contract expired."

According to the lieutenant, there was a lab services contract to start Oct. 1, 2015, and expiring on Sept. 30, 2016. The command's Resource Management Directorate had to estimate funds to be allotted for that specific contract. The awareness for Ozanich was that they could set aside a certain amount, but then only get billed for half of the lab services for the year. If such was the case, the funds that went unused would also expire at the end of the year, instead of being shifted elsewhere to cover other needs during that time. The goal in any such scenario is to ensure that does not happen.

"What we developed over the last couple of years is a system to track and monitor all of our active contracts for any given fiscal year," explained Ozanich, a Medical Service Corps officer from San Antonio, Texas. "If a contract is underperforming, we touch base with the department that uses that contract and see if we can reduce the contract award to be redistributed to other needed areas."

For his work on this and other duties in his position, Ozanich was recently recognized as Accountant of the Year "for outstanding achievements in accounting operations, standard operating procedures sustainment and financial statement audit readiness."

The accolades are nice, but Ozanich attests that he did not expect to see his name listed amongst the Calendar Year 2014 Department of the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) Financial Management Award winners.

"It was a complete shock to me. I feel humbled and honored to have been chosen and it definitely wouldn't have been a possibility without help from several individuals," he said. "But in all honesty, I did do a few fist pumps when I found out."

Ozanich grew up in San Antonio and graduated from Sandra Day O'Connor High School in 2005. He completed his Bachelors and Masters in Health Administration at Texas State University, and gravitated toward the Navy soon after.

"My father was retired Army and almost every healthcare experience I had ever had was at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Choosing it as a career possibility was always in the back of my mind going through college," he added. "Entering grad school, I started communicating with recruiters and discovered that Navy Medicine was by far and away the best career choice for me. It has also given me the opportunity to serve my country and give back to the military health system."

Ozanich added that being in the resource management field has been a very rewarding experience in a career that has taken him from Newport, Rhode Island, to Washington, D.C., to his current assignment at NHB.

The naval officer said that growing up within the military health system provided insight when starting his own military career.

"I was [also] fortunate enough to have the opportunity to specialize in resource management as a health care administrator coming right out of officer development school."

Ozanich insisted that the best part about his Navy Medicine career has been watching programs, policies, and practices, in which he has had a hand in developing, have a meaningful impact on the command and BUMED.

When asked how important it is to be the command's comptroller, Ozanich cited the quote, "No margin. No mission," from Sister Irene Krause, the former chairman of Baptist/St. Vincent's Health System, in Jacksonville, Florida, and one-time head of one of the nation's largest Catholic health systems, who passed away in 1998 at the age of 74. She strongly believed that strong fiscal management is what modern hospitals need to fulfill their mission.

Aside from keeping the books balanced and ensuring that there is proper funding to accomplish the command mission, Ozanich also helps ensure that all the command's fiscal responsibility are in accordance with appropriation laws and policies.

"I don't think a lot of people grasp just how many different rules and regulations are in place guarding the tax payer's dollars," he said. "It makes our job difficult at times because we are usually the bad guys telling everyone 'no, we can't do that.' Also, Department of Defense is undergoing an external financial audit in a couple of years. It has been a very challenging process to become audit ready. We are in the middle of that journey right now and it will ultimately be the responsibility of the comptroller to ensure that the command will pass the audit when it comes."

Ozanich said that though his job can be difficult at times, he could sum up his Navy Medicine experience in one sentence.

"It has been a surprising, rewarding, and challenging journey so far."

For more news from Naval Hospital Bremerton, visit www.navy.mil/