Undersecretary of the Army Joseph Reeder presented today the Vice President's
Hammer award to the DeWitt Army Community Hospital Primary Care Reinvention
Team as the Department of Defense's Hero of Reinvention at an interagency
ceremony.
The Primary Care Reinvention Team for northern Virginia was charted by the Army
Surgeon General in January 1993.
Its mission was to revolutionize the delivery
of primary care services for the Department of Defense beneficiaries in
northern Virginia.
Col. Warren A. Todd Jr., commander of Fort Belvoir's DeWitt
Army Community Hospital, was appointed as the Process Action Team leader for
this reinvention initiative.
The reinvention has resulted in an Army hospital
being transformed from an inaccessible, inefficient, and antiquated facility
into what is today the hub of a primary care delivery network that services
Department of Defense beneficiaries with high quality, accessible, cost
effective primary care.
The primary care system was reinvented with the establishment and integration
of government-operated, community-based primary care clinics in northern
Virginia.
The system serves 140,000 beneficiaries through a well-defined
network which includes community-based clinics at Fort Belvoir, Vint Hill Farms
Station, Fort Meyer, Woodbridge, Burke and Fairfax.
The Primary Care service
is wellness-oriented, patient-focused and comprehensive.
In addition to
traditional primary care services, each site provides mental health and
women's' health services together with an integrated health care
advice/appointment system.
These outlying clinics serve as extensions of the supporting hospital,
providing convenient "one-stop shopping" which maximizes access for service
members, retirees and their families.
Customers register for care at a primary
care site close to their home or place of employment.
Assignment to a
multidisciplinary primary care team of family practitioners, internists,
pediatricians, physicians' assistants and nurse practitioners ensures
continuity of care and enhances patient satisfaction.
Clinic hours have been expanded by 20 percent to take into account the commuter
patterns common to many families in the Washington DC metropolitan area.
The
reinvented system increases customer capacity by 14 percent, while providing at
least $1 million in annual savings to the government.
Ultimately this is a system that will work better and cost less by putting
customers first.
It is the physical realization of a vision that strives to
make the DeWitt Health Care System the system of choice in an environment that
places a premium on access, quality and value.
