Draft registration of health care personnel

A chronic shortage of health care personnel in the active and reserve forces continues to be of concern, particularly in planning for national emergencies or war. Congress has authorized the Selective Service System to establish a system to register and classify health care personnel rapidly in the event a national emergency requires implementation of a draft for the armed services. This paper describes the creation of the Health Care Personnel Delivery System. It provides a brief history of previous military drafts for health care personnel and describes the principal differences in the way a draft registration program may operate in the future.