Military Personnel: Additional Actions Needed to Address Gaps in Military Physician Specialties
Abstract
Because of nationwide shortages and other challenges, DOD offers programs and incentives to attract and retain more than 16,000 military physicians. DODs scholarship program, managed by the services, and its University(DODs sponsored medical school),are the departments two primary programs for creating a pipeline of future military physicians. Senate Report 114-255 included a provision for GAO to review the recruitment, accession, and retention of military health care professionals. GAO assessed the extent to which DOD (1) has experienced gaps between its military physician authorizations and end strengths, and has an approach to address key gaps;(2) has enrolled students who meet minimum qualifications, and tracked data to evaluate their performance; and (3) knows the costs of educating scholarship and University medical students. GAO compared authorizations to end strengths by specialty, analyzed student data and scholarship and University costs, and interviewed DOD and service officials
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1131218
Entities
People
- Brenda S. Farrell
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office