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FORT BLISS, Texas – When you hear about the Patient and Family Partnership Council at William Beaumont Army Medical Center, you may be curious as to what it’s all about. The PFPC exists for one reason, and that is to have an open dialogue of healthcare between patients and hospital leadership. Meetings are held on a quarterly basis both in person and live streamed through the hospital’s Facebook page.
The PFPC was created and mandated by the Defense Health Agency, aiming to enhance the patient experience in all military treatment facilities. WBAMC’s Patient Experience office manages and runs the PFPC, with patients as members of the council. The PFPC has been up and running at WBAMC for about four years now and this year’s report to DHA entailed many accomplishments to help continue or improve the patient experience.
“The meetings are very helpful; we have had some issues brought to our attention that we were able to address,” said Kristal Pinkney, chief of WBAMC Patient Experience office.
One such accomplishment was the Walk-in Wellness Clinics, where patients can discreetly access testing for sexually transmitted infections. Normally, a patient would have to see their primary care provider, obtain a referral for the testing, and get results at another consultation. The Army Public Health Nursing office at WBAMC established the Walk-in Wellness Clinics to ease patients minds and encourage them to get tested. Patients can walk in at East Bliss, Soldier Family Medical, and Mendoza Clinic laboratories and request a “Wellness Test.” Each lab location will conduct the tests and APHN staff only call the patient if there is anything that comes up positive.
Patients who bring up issues during the PFPC are not only heard at the hospital command level, they are also heard at the Defense Health Agency level. One issue was the lack of refill prescription option in MHS GENESIS. Recently, DHA added it back, improving access to prescriptions for all patients nationwide.
David Darby, a patient and veteran, recently volunteered to be the co-chair of the PFPC and has encouraged his peers to participate in the PFPC meetings. The council has yet to appoint a few more patient members. However, although positions are not forthcoming from patients, the PFPC meetings still prove useful in information exchange between patients and hospital leadership.
“I hope to see more participation from our patients in the PFPC; this is their hospital, and we want to make sure we are providing the best possible experience,” said Pinkney. “The only way to do that is to hear the voice of the patient.”
According to Pinkney, her office is currently working towards finding a parking lot shuttle. WBAMC is now on its third year of occupying the new facility, and the huge parking lot is a problem for patients, having to walk more of a distance to reach the main entrance after parking.
“The number one priority for our office at this time, to improve the patient experience, is finding solutions for patients to access the facility without having to walk a great distance,” said Pinkney.
The next scheduled PFPC will be on August 15, 2024, at 10:30 a.m. on the first floor of the main hospital’s administration building, inside the Clinical Assembly Room. Patients are highly encouraged to attend.
| Date Taken: | 07.09.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 07.09.2024 17:09 |
| Story ID: | 475797 |
| Location: | FORT BLISS, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 89 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, WBAMC’s PFPC Annual Report for 2024, by Amabilia Payen, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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