CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - Health care is a center of focus across the nation, and there is no exception to those concerns at Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune. Ensuring quality, accessible, quick care has always been a priority, but the hospital is looking at improved ways to ensure top-rated service for its service members. To do this, the hospital is increasing its number of providers, hosting virtual initiatives, and creating wider appointment availability through extended hours and weekend visits. All of these are in place to encourage patients to seek out their primary care doctors first.
“We want to provide quality care when it is needed,” said Cmdr. Dan D’Aurora, the deputy director of Medical Service. “We would like to be able to build a relationship with our patients. The only way we can do this is if they are coming to see us.”
Several members choose to go to the emergency department rather than their primary care provider for concerns such as prescription refills or for common colds during normal working hours, according to Lt. Cmdr. Brian Beale, the division officer for Family Medicine.
“The emergency room is designed to treat immediate or life-threatening concerns, whereas the primary care team knows you inside and out. They are going to ensure you are well from top to bottom,” said D’Aurora, who explained that the hospital clinics are set up to provide a team approach. “We have a team based approach to providing health care. We have doctors and nurses like one would expect. Additionally, we have pharmacy, behavioral health, case managers and more all in one place.”
“(Patients) want quick access to their providers, but they also want consistency,” said Guy Ambrose, a Naval Hospital patient relations advocate. “The team approach gives them better, quicker, quality access, while still maintaining some consistency within the team.”
In many case patients have different ideas of what health care should look like. The patient relations office, who receives 1100 interactive customer evaluation comments a month, can be reached at 910-450-4154. Currently, NHCL has an ICE rating of 92 percent satisfaction and continues to strive to improve the patient’s experience of care, according to Ambrose.
In the past, phone wait times for appointments were a challenge.
Appointments seemed to always be booked by the time the caller made it through. To overcome this issue, the hospital has added more staff to its ranks to ensure same day care is available.
D’Aurora explains that in some cases patients don’t even need an appointment to get assistance, “One of the reasons we created RelayHealth was to cut down on patients who do not need to see their primary care provider at all.”
RelayHealth, which can be accessed from a computer or downloaded onto any smartphone, allows patients to have access to their healthcare team anytime, anywhere, from any Internet connection.
“It’s easy and secure. For your non-urgent needs, you may even save yourself an office visit. No more waiting on-hold for appointments or medication refills. No more talking to people other than your medical team about private matters,” he said.
“I went to the doctor last week for a cold,” said one patient. “I wasn’t feeling better this week, so I messaged my provider on RelayHealth. He emailed me back notifying me that he was going to switch my medication and that it was ready to be picked up from the pharmacy.”
There are many options for service members and their families. Service members have branch clinics. Most clinics open at 7:30 a.m. and offer same day appointments. All of their appointments can be booked through RelayHealth or by calling their appointment line phone number.
Camp Geiger has a 24 hour duty corpsman and is open from 7:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. Geiger also offers same day appointments. Regular appointments can be made at 910-449-0545.
Camp Johnson is open from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. and offers same day appointments beginning when they open. Regular appointments can be made at 910-450-0836.
Hadnot Point’s same day appointments begin at 6:30 a.m. The clinic closes at 3:30, with an exception of Thursdays where it closes at 11 a.m. Regular appointments can be made at 910-451-1053.
The Naval Hospital’s Family medicine clinic is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Pediatrics is open 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The pediatric clinic is also open on the weekends from 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Those patients who would rather phone are encouraged to call the appointment call center at 910-450-4357, option 1. Callers then choose from three options – option one for family medicine, option two for pediatrics and option three for all other appointments.
For non-emergent medical concerns that may arise at night or on weekends, patients are encouraged to call the Nurse Advice Line at 1-800-TRICARE (874-2273), option 1.
“Readiness is why we exist. We are here to ensure Marines and Sailors are world-wide deployable and their families are well taken care of so they don’t have to worry when they are away,” said D’Aurora. “We are striving to be the medical center of choice. We want our active duty, reserve and retired service members and their families to feel like family.”
| Date Taken: | 12.16.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 12.16.2015 16:29 |
| Story ID: | 184704 |
| Location: | CAMP LEJEUNE, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 107 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Naval Hospital enhances care, providing same day appointments, by SSgt Danielle Bolton, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
