Air Force Medical Service (AFMS) and Army Medical Command (MEDCOM) Access to Care

The Client
U.S. Air Force Surgeon General's Office and the U.S. Army Medical Command

The Challenge
The Health Benefits Division (SGSA) of the Air Force Surgeon General's (AF/SG) Office required assistance in their continuous improvement of access to healthcare at Air Force Medical Treatment Facilities (MTFs).

Based on the success of our efforts for the AF/SG, the Army Medical Command requested that we develop and employ a measure, consult, train/educate and re-measure model at Womack Army Community Hospital to improve access to primary care.

The Solution
For the Air Force Surgeon General's Office:

• We train MTF Staff to optimize access to healthcare. Our team supports AF/SG in optimizing access to healthcare at AFMS MTFs by providing recurrent training on new and existing policies/tools/information systems, etc. to assist in optimizing access. This is accomplished via multiple annual seminars in various regions across the CONUS and overseas.
• We serve as AF/SG functional subject matter consultants on access and appointing. Our experts support AF/SG in developing, deploying and monitoring DoD and AF/SG policies and programs to optimize access to healthcare.
• We support AF/SG in all aspects of referral management and policy.
• We support all Referral Management Improvement Activities.
• We support Access Metric Development/Deployment and Reporting.
• We analyze, track, develop and coordinate information systems requirements and changes pertaining to AFMS Patient Appointment and Access Management Processes.
• We provide support services for educational seminars.

For the Army:

• We have developed a comprehensive project plan
• We have assembled and expert staff with deep Army medical experience
• Our staff has made multiple visits to Womack to collect data and perform training.
• We have delivered two interim reports outlining actions that can be taken to significantly improve access
• We will continue to work with Womack to ensure improved access.

The Results
By partnering with our AFMS customer, our team has become an integral and key component of the AFMS' access to care improvements efforts. Our training programs are widely recognized as extremely productive and effective. Word of the excellence we bring in this area has spread to the Army and Navy who now have personnel routinely requesting to be added to list of personnel who are allowed to attend the training sessions.

Our AFMS access to care team is extraordinarily experienced and effective. Our customer describes the project lead as follows: "I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the exceptional performance of Mr. .., the Air Force is truly fortunate to have .. as their Access Consultant. Personally, I could not image anyone else who could perform this critical role to the degree of professionalism, effectiveness, efficiency, and mirth that .. executes every day. .. is always focused on the bottom line: the patient and the MTF staff. He is a tiger when it comes to protecting the interest of his client, the AFMS."

Our efforts have resulted in a routine access met score improvement from 78% to 92%.

Our current work with the MEDCOM and Womack Army Community Hospital has resulted in multiple suggestions that will improve access to care. Our training has been extremely effective and is already producing results. Our team is confident that final result of this pilot project result significant access improvement for Womack patients.