Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work and other senior DoD leaders yesterday outlined to reporters the findings of a review of military health care and the job that lies ahead to ensure access, safety and quality across the system.
DoD leaders will dig into the findings of the review of the Military Health System that was conducted over the summer, Work said. The review was ordered in May by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who also discussed the review’s findings with reporters at the Pentagon.
“We’re jumping in right now,” Work told reporters. “The secretary has given us extremely aggressive timelines.”
Health care system is healthy, needs improvement
The military health care system is healthy, but can be improved, the deputy secretary said.
“[There are] hospitals that are very good in one area, not so good in another area, and average in others,” Work said, adding that no facilities were singled out in the review.
Army, Navy and Air Force surgeons general will examine how to increase the quality of average facilities and identify the best medical practices, Work said, “so we can raise the average of the entire enterprise.”
‘Unprecedented’ review of military health care
The review of the military health care system was unprecedented in its scope, said Dr. Laura Junor, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.
“We looked at 37 metrics sets that covered the entire enterprise of our Military Health System,” Junor said, noting the review report spanned 700 pages.
In addition to examining data, site visits were made at seven large and small hospitals, she said, adding that one was an overseas facility.
“Those site visits not only served as a check of our centrally collected data, but also ensured that we had the opportunity to talk to the people that work in our Military Health System and with our beneficiaries,” Junor said.
“We also collected data on three top-performing civilian health care medical centers, and we did this to provide a benchmark for what great performance looks like,” she said of the review.
“Our data are telling us that we're meeting the standards we set for ourselves,” Junor said.
Access challenges to health care
Yet, through the use of surveys and in speaking with beneficiaries, she said, “They were telling us a slightly different story -- that there were access challenges” to military health care.
The department will determine “what's driving those differences,” she said, “and we're going to especially take a look at access as it pertains to the civilian health care providers in our TRICARE system.”
In the areas of health care safety and quality, Junor said, the review found that while the Military Health System’s general performance was comparable to the civilian sector, there were more average and low observations “than we're comfortable with.”
‘We will do better’
She added, “We hold ourselves to a higher standard. We will do better.”
Unsatisfactory observations will be investigated and mitigation plans will be developed to increase performance, Junor said.
“We're going to implement a performance management system,” she said, explaining that a core set of metrics and DOD-wide standards will be identified and performance will be monitored across the system.
“We're also going to set up a central analytic capability to make sure that we understand the secret of high performers and how to bring up low performers,” Junor said.
“One of the external reviewers said it best. When you take a look at the military health care system, it's broadly comparable to the civilian health care system. There are pockets of excellence, of below-average standards and a wide variety of average behavior,” Work told reporters.
“We want everyone to take a look at us and say, ‘This is a leading-edge military health care system,’” he added.
(Follow Terri Moon Cronk on Twitter: @MoonCronkDoD)