Defense Health Care. Force Health Protection and Surveillance Policy Compliance Was Mixed, but Appears Better for Recent Deployments
Abstract
Overall compliance with DOD s force health protection and surveillance policies for servicemembers who deployed in support of OIF varied by service, by installation, and by policy requirement. Army and Air Force compliance during OIF for the installations in our review appears much better compared to the installations included in our previous review7 of OEF and OJG. Installations we examined from the Marine Corps, on the other hand, generally had lower levels of compliance across the policy requirements we examined when compared to other services; however, we did not review medical records from the Marines or Navy in our previous review. Our review disclosed that the extent of policy compliance varied in the following areas: " Deployment health assessments. The Army and the Air Force installations were generally missing small percentages (less than 10 percent) of pre-deployment health assessments. In contrast, pre-deployment health assessments were missing for an estimated 63 percent8 of the servicemembers at one Marine Corps installation and for about 27 percent at the other Marine Corps installation reviewed. The Navy installation in our review was missing pre-deployment health assessments for 24 percent of the servicemembers. Post-deployment health assessments were completed for most servicemembers (95 percent or more) in our samples, except at one of the Marine Corps installations we visited. While almost all post-deployment health assessments for the services were completed within DOD required time frames except for one Army installation, many of the pre-deployment health assessments in our samples were not. Except for servicemembers at one of the two Marine Corps installations visited, a health care provider reviewed all but small percentages of the completed health assessments as required by DOD policy.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA465605
Entities
People
- Christopher Rice
- Clara Mejstrik
- Clifton E. Spruill
- Lynn Johnson
- Margaret Holihan
- Rebecca Beale
- Steve Fox
- Susan Mason
- Terry Richardson
- William Mathers
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office