LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Virginia –
Although the Langley hospital transitioned the Emergency Room to an Urgent Care Clinic nearly five months ago, not much has changed.
The emergency room saw approximately one emergent patient every six days, and now that the transition is complete the hospital still sees about that number, according to the Col. Kory Cornum, 1st Medical Group commander.
“People are driving past a perfectly good emergency room at Sentara to come to the 1st Fighter Wing Hospital,” he said.
The Emergency Room transitioned in October after the hospital lost its last emergency certified doctor who filled a short-notice deployment.
“The Air Force is currently in the process of contracting out some of the medical positions, and ER docs are hard to come by even for the civilian community,” said Colonel Bostock.
Besides the necessity to change to an UCC because of manning, the transition only seems to make sense.
“Even when we had an ER, we did not have an Intensive Care Unit and patients were taken downtown anyway,” she said.
The Clinic is still manned 24-hours a day, seven days a week by qualified family practice doctors. It is capable of providing care for everything that is not life threatening.
“For a life, limb or eye threatening emergency ... go to the emergency room downtown,” said Colonel Bostock. “The Riverside Hospital is the designated trauma center for our region. Sentara also has an excellent ER.”
There have been concerns that military members have had to pay for visits to off-base emergency rooms because they did not have actual emergencies.
“This could not be further from the truth,” said Tech. Sgt. Michele McTheny, TRICARE, Non-commissioned Officer in Charge. “Any ER visit will be covered regardless of the nature of the visit.”
TRICARE did, however, warn if a patient goes to a UCC downtown they must contact their Primary Care Manager within 24-hours for a referral.
“Without the referral from the PCM, TRICARE can refuse to pay for the visit,” said Sergeant McTheny.
Although not much has changed, UCC personnel remind people that manning for the center and the fact that the center sees all DoD card-holders from this side of the peninsula has caused some delays in service.
“We simply ask if you are experiencing a longer than normal wait, ask the technician at the help desk how much longer or kindly remind them you are still waiting,” said Urgent Care Clinic NCOIC, Tech. Sgt. Michael Bennett.
The Emergency Room will return to the hospital when the manning needs are met and military construction projects on the hospital are complete, said Colonel Cornum.