9th Medical Group encourages alternate modes of patient, staff communication

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Ramon A. Adelan
  • 9th Reconnaissance Wing Public Affairs
BEALE AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  The 9th Medical Group held an open house and town hall meeting June 24, at the clinic here for patients to find out what services are provided and promote different modes of communication to patient health care teams.

The 9th MDG motto is-- "Your life... our mission."

The medical group held the open house to highlight services offered, ideas for healthy living, and provide assistance signing up for MiCare. To follow-up the open house, Col. Jody Ocker, 9th Medical Group commander, held a town hall meeting for her and other members of the medical group to address new and pre-existing services to patients. The town hall meeting also gave patients the opportunity to give feedback and ask questions about services provided at the clinic.

"We want to make sure we are engaging our patients as collaborators in their health care and being efficient and effective at our job," Ocker said.

There are tools, which patients can utilize to help the clinic achieve this goal.

The tools are:

Nurse advice line- The nurse advice line is a DoD-wide service for patients to call a nurse and receive advice for care. The nurses can assist patients with any steps they would need to take for self-care, scheduling appointments, and directing them to an emergency room or urgent care. In many instances, MiCare can be used instead of making a phone call.

MiCare - MiCare Secure Messaging is an online service, which allows patients to communicate directly with their health care team. The MiCare tool also provides patients the ability to request appointments, medication refills, immunization records, and view test or lab results.

Facebook- The 9th MDG utilizes the Facebook page to provide information about the clinic services, activities, events, health promotions and education. Beneficiaries are encouraged to "like" the page and comment on or share posts.

"Ultimately what I would love is for patients to think their experience at the Beale clinic is the best they have ever had at any military treatment facility," Ocker said. "That is what we are striving for, but I can't fix it if I don't know the issue."

The clinic leadership and staff encourage patients to utilize these tools and other feedback services offered at the clinic.

"Everybody has unique experiences and I would like to know about those so I can put the picture together and see where I need to apply effort to improve things and I think everybody in our organization is ready, willing, and able to make improvements," Ocker said. "I want to cultivate a culture of being open and accommodating patient needs when we can."

Patients can contact the Nurse Advice Line at (800) TRICARE (874-2273).

(Some information courtesy of MiCare)