Pentagon plans to fix ‘chronically understaffed’ medical facilities
Officials see wooing patients back to military doctors as part of the solution
By Karen Jowers
Thursday, Jan 25
After years of forcing some military beneficiaries to seek medical care in the private sector, the Defense Department wants to attract patients back to military treatment facilities.
Citing problems that have led to “chronically understaffed military treatment facilities and dental treatment facilities,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks has directed sweeping changes to boost staffing at medical facilities and increase access to care for beneficiaries.
“Our service members, their families, other beneficiaries and all those cared for by military medicine will be better served when we rebuild [military treatment facility] capacity,” Hicks wrote in a Dec. 6 memo entitled “Stabilizing and Improving the Military Health System.”
Hicks laid out a plan to grow the number of patients who receive care in a military treatment facility by 7% by the end of 2026, compared to the number of beneficiaries in December 2022. That would mean 3.3 million people would be using the MTFs in three years, according to Military Times calculations.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2024/01/25/pentagon-plans-to-fix-chronically-understaffed-medical-facilities/
