To Our Hawaii Patients

Aloha and welcome to Military Medicine in the Pacific. The competent and capable staff of Tripler Army Medical Center, the Makalapa, Hickam, Schofield Barracks Health Clinics and Warrior Ohana Medical Home provide primary, secondary and tertiary medical care to all Service members and their Families and Veterans on Oahu and those evacuated here from throughout the Pacific Region. Our collective staffs work tirelessly to sustain and improve your health status, including medical readiness (i.e., periodic health assessment) and HEDIS measures (diabetes measures). We will ask you questions about your health status and I ask that you do the same of us—let’s strive to ensure compliance with every measure.

The Pacific Regional Medical Command Vision is to be the most trusted medical team in the world. Our end-state is your acknowledgement of trust in Military Medicine, a full understanding of your health and the compliance measures involved and a collaboration with your primary care manager (PCM) and Tripler specialists and services to exhaust all avenues of care for you. In that vein, Tripler staff adopted a Credo that drives our behaviors in assuring quality and responsive care, active communication, service excellence and exhaustion of our intellect and resources. Our sister Services and the Veterans Administration follow a similar set of behaviors that establishes trust, assures a positive attitude and makes your patient visit the most important mission during that day and time. Tripler staff further leverage the employment of Tele-Health and Tele-Behavioral Health that bring needed capabilities via video teleconference calls to primary care clinics on Oahu and community hospitals in remote and off-island installations. Additionally, Tripler specialists continue to pave the way in Military Medicine in identifying new treatment protocols, such as pain management (only active duty and veterans), traumatic brain injury and sleep studies, just to name a few. Finally, your PCM, whether he/she is a military or civilian healthcare provider, is the most important “health multiplier” in sustaining and improving your health status. Please ensure you know his/her name. Ensure our appointment clerks always inform you of your PCM by name and always ask to see your PCM whenever he/she is available in the clinic. Your health will improve because of the continuity of care and the bond that is established in the provider-patient relationship. Lastly, the PCM is the foundation, the keystone and the linchpin of the new concept or model in healthcare delivery called the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH). Your clinic is transforming now, or will soon, into a PCMH where the PCM or PCM Team is central to the care given. The assigned licensed practical nurses and registered nurses provide tremendous education, follow-up and the entire Team leverages technology that engages you via secure messaging. The staff tracks referrals to specialists at Tripler or in the private sector to ensure any new care plans are understood and become part of the overall health plan. This PCMH will transform your health care and overall inspire trust in Military Medicine. As of this publication, the Warrior Ohana Medical Home at Ko Olina and the Internal Medicine Medical Home at Tripler are up and running and the improvements in care and care plans have been phenomenal. Our sister services on Pearl Harbor and Hickam and the Veterans’ Administration are also moving in this direction.

This guide provides you key information about how to access care, seek referrals, where we are located and the processes expected of you in obtaining care. If at any time you’re unfamiliar or confused about the care here in Oahu, let us know. We want to help.

YOU also have a key responsibility. You must register with Tricare Prime at Tripler or your respective Services’ Tricare Service Center. You will then obtain a PCM by name and clinic location. This is a critical task during inprocessing—please do it. Registration includes Service members and your Families. It’s quick and easy. Do it.

If you are Tricare Standard or Tricare Plus living here in Oahu, please look again at Tripler and register with us. We want to take care of you and have the capability at this time. You have my word that we will keep you signed up for Tricare Prime or Plus during my tenure and I’ll ensure my successor understands how important it is to maintain this coverage for you.

The DoD Pharmacy Benefit is awesome. I did want to tell you about how we as taxpayers can save the government money. Tripler is able to gain considerable discounts from vendors via the Prime Vendor Program. The Retail Pharmacy charges considerable more for a prescription than Tripler (basically a wholesale pharmacy). Many of our beneficiaries do use these network retail pharmacies; in fact about 20 percent of the total prescriptions filled on Oahu are filled in the retail pharmacies. The pharmacy expense on Oahu shows 33 percent of the total prescription expense is in retail pharmacies. I ask that you give Tripler and our sister Service pharmacies an opportunity to fill all the retail pharmacy prescriptions. A new prescription must be filled at one of the main pharmacies and then all future refills can be filled at the NEX or even our Warrior Ohana Medical Home. We all should want to reduce prescription costs in the network as much as possible, even as high as 50 percent reduction, to save taxpayers money.

Thank you for your service and sacrifice. Let us know how we can help you improve and sustain your health. We want to be the most trusted medical team in the world; help me make this happen. One Team!

Sincerely,
Keith Gallagher
Brigadier General, Commanding
Pacific Regional Medical Command and Tripler Army Medical Center  read more...

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