Clinical Review
As such, we’ve achieved great results over the first year, saving about $248 million. But more importantly, we set the foundation for 21st century systems that will allow us to manage the Military Health System much more effectively, such as establishing a foundation for a common cost accounting system and the development of an enterprise performance management system.
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The Military Health System added what we call the Quadruple Aim, which is providing better outcomes, better patient care experience, managing costs, and meeting our readiness mission. We have also established a solid strategic plan and framework in which to ensure that we will meet that end. We’ve had tremendous progress over the first year.
I just want to remind you and everyone of what a heavy lift this was. This is a major reorganization where thousands of people have been reassigned and reorganized to produce a more effective management system. This was no easy lift, but it has been tremendously successful to date.
You don’t necessarily flip the switch and everything is mature and working optimally overnight. The intent was to ensure that it was fully operational and capable by 1 October 2015. What we have seen to date is that it’s ahead of schedule, and that’s good news.
It represents major transformational change. Many people have to be moved. We had to build a new leadership team that, in fact, was heavily invested and contributed to by the uniformed services, the Army, Navy, and Air Force. So they’re deeply invested in the leadership and the governance of the Defense Health Agency.
The Military’s Health Care Challenges
Dr. Woodson. Our central guiding principle is the Quadruple Aim. And at the center, as I mentioned before, is this issue of readiness; and readiness is about ensuring that we have a healthy force to do the nation’s bidding in terms of defense. Not only do we have a healthy force, but we keep them healthy. So we commit to looking at environmental concerns wherever they are deployed. Of course, we provide force protection measures such as vaccines and medicines to prevent infectious diseases, such as malaria if they’re working in a part of the world where that’s endemic.
This is all part of the responsibilities of the military health system. But also, the second part of the readiness responsibility is ensuring that we have a ready medical force. A group of superbly trained providers from the embedded combat medic up to the super subspecialist neurosurgeon, nurses of all specialties and varieties, and other allied health professionals that can create a robust Military Health System and provide above the standard of care anywhere in the world where our sailors, marines, airmen, and soldiers may be operating.
We also have to deal with the issue of chronic problems, health problems that afflict our society. We have started initiatives to address obesity and fitness across a broad spectrum. As a strategy for the military health system, we’re moving from the system of health care, which is just providing treatment after an established disease has occurred, to one of health, which is looking at the whole paradigm of wellness and preventing disease from occurring. It is about reaching into that white space where people learn, work, and play to ensure that they can make healthy choices....We’re deeply invested in the health of the beneficiaries that we serve across a broad spectrum, and we’re deeply invested in the issue of prevention, not only the treatment of disease.
The issue that I would want everyone to understand is that health care and health care delivery in the 21st century is very complex. It’s about not only the actual technology, advances in medical science, but it’s also about addressing where medical science hits human systems and how do you make the system work so that you achieve the best outcomes? And in that mix are the issues of cost and ensuring that you have the ability to deliver that care wherever it’s needed. We’ve mapped out with the leadership of the Military Health System, the surgeons general, and all of their leaders a pathway forward that, in fact, will ensure that the Military Health System will be strong, better, and relevant going into the 21st century and will continue to be a key enabler for the national security, national defense, and the national military strategies.
As a designated Combat Support Agency, the Defense Health Agency is also responsible for meeting the medical needs of the combatant commanders. Central to this role is to ensure our service members are medically ready to perform their mission, and our military medical personnel are ready to perform their mission—“Medically Ready Force…Ready Medical Force.”