Military Health Care: Defense Health Agency Processes for Responding to Provider Quality and Safety Concerns
Abstract
The Defense Health Agency (DHA) within the Department of Defense (DOD) supports the delivery of health care to servicemembers and their families at military treatment facilities (MTF),which include 51 military hospitals and hundreds of health and dental clinics. These health care services are delivered by physicians, dentists, and other providers and range from routine examinations to complex surgical procedures. DHA, through its clinical quality management program, is responsible for ensuring the quality and safety of health care delivered at MTFs by military and civilian health care providers, including contractors. As in all health care delivery settings, concerns may arise about the quality and safety of care delivered by individual health care providers at MTFs. For example, patient safety events - incidents that could have resulted or did result in harm to a patient - may occur during the course of providing health care services. Concerns about a providers care may also arise in other circumstances - for example, from routine performance monitoring or from patient complaints. Examples of concerns about a provider's clinical care range from insufficient clinical documentation to practicing in a manner that is unsafe or inconsistent with industry standards of care.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1149524
Entities
People
- Sharon M. Silas
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office