Patient Access Study

The Assistant Chief for Health Care Operations (BUMED 03) asked CNA to develop a method that Navy medicine can use to determine whether it is meeting Tricare access standards, especially for scheduling appointments. The report found that the Composite Health Care System (CHCS) currently gives local military medicine providers the ability to track patient access to care, but that many providers are grappling with the same concerns and issues. To reduce redundancy, the report recommends that Navy medicine adopt standard guidelines for appointing and tracking access based on the experience of the facilities pioneering Tricare. It specifically recommends that Navy medicine develop system-wide appointing guidelines that increase the use of central appointing, standardize appointment types, make specialty referrals electronic, and develop specialty referral guidelines.