CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- The 27th Special Operations Medical Group is currently undergoing their move into the newly-built clinic on base and will be fully operational Feb. 7, 2017.
The new building will provide more parking spaces and a spacious layout to help with the flow of patients. The move provides a unique opportunity to educate Air Commandos of the aid each agency within the clinic provides so that all resources available are being utilized. This article focuses on the Acute Care Clinic Program.
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The Acute Care Clinic program, started back in early November 2017, aims to speed up and improve the process for patients being seen and treated for an acute problem.
“An acute appointment is defined as needing to be seen or treated within 24 hours such as vomiting, an allergic reaction, any type of painful injury and so on.” said Maj. Misti Neill, 27th Special Operations Medical Support Squadron group practice manager. “Instead of going to urgent care for these type of inquiries, we restructured all of our Family Healthcare providers’ schedules so that each one of them took over one day of the week so we can see more patients.”
Appointments can be made by calling the appointment line at 575-784-2778 and are available to schedule Monday through Friday between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
“That’s also a big change because historically our providers’ schedules might have ended at 3 p.m. or somewhere around that time. This new time frame extends flexibility to the patients so they can get in and get seen,” Neill said.
In addition to the appointment line, patients can go to TriCare online to schedule appointments 24/7.
“The Acute Care Clinic is not a walk-in clinic,” Neill explained. “The appointment line doesn’t open until 7 a.m. however patients can login in TriCare online at any time and choose an available appointment slot for the same day. Patients can also cancel appointments online so that they do not receive a ‘no show’,” Neill said.
This initiative has cut down on inappropriate usage of emergency room visits by 44 percent since the start of its function.
“We just want patients to know that during the duty day your first action should be to call the appointment line because we are going to be able to get you in faster and that’s what every patient wants,” Neill said.