Rader Clinic training hours to change: Weekly one-hour closures switch to one full day monthly

Photo By Damien Salas | In a new initiative to better prepare health care professionals employed at the Andrew Rader U.S. Army Health Clinic for everyday patient care, the clinic is rearranging its training schedule starting June 3. (Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall PAO photo by Damien Salas)  

JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VA, UNITED STATES

04.16.2015

Story by Damien Salas 

Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall

JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. - In a new initiative to better prepare healthcare professionals employed at the Andrew Rader U.S. Army Health Clinic for every day patient care, the clinic is rearranging its training schedule starting June 3.

Beginning in June, the clinic will close the first Wednesday of every month, increasing the amount of hours for training to 80 annually. The changes will give a whole day for the clinic staff to focus on mandatory training and work on customer feedback.

“We are improving the amount of time for training, and the effectiveness of that training and adding the ability to train everyone at once,” said clinic Commander Lt. Col. Ed Weinberg.

The hours will impact the time patients can visit the clinic or refill prescriptions, but will also greatly improve quality of care over the clinic’s current training plan, according to Weinberg.

“We close every Thursday afternoon from 3 to 4 p.m., using 52 hours of clinical time dedicated to clinical training,” he said. “At that time, there are still patients in the facility receiving care, and any number of patients still waiting on prescriptions from the pharmacy.”

Since the lobby is the only place large enough to accommodate the clinic’s large staff, training and patient care are disrupted by the current training schedule, said Weinberg.

Currently, the staff takes care of their Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) training, and other mandatory professional training that the clinic depends on for certification, in the down time of their work schedules. Allowing staff to dedicate an entire business day to complete training will yield positive results on certifications and a better knowledge of the ever-changing health care field, said Weinberg.

“Properly trained staff are confident, competent, trusted and engaged professionals,” he said. “We are reinvesting in our people.”

In order to add back clinical hours available to patients, Weinberg said the staff will cut back on the number of training holidays held typically on the Friday before federal holidays, which is currently nine, and reduce that number to five.

The federal training holidays the clinic remains closed are: Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Those four days Rader is open for business will add 32 hours to the clinical schedule, which will benefit dual service member households who have those days off to receive care.

Retired U.S. Army Col. Al Willner, co-chair of JBM-HH’s Retiree Council said there will be an adjustment period for retirees and all concerned, but that in the long run, improved training is good for patients and providers.

“The new training schedule will require some adjustment by the retiree community, especially those who have typically scheduled appointments or come by the pharmacy on the first Wednesday of the month,” said Willner.

The most important process to this change is getting the information about these changes out to patients, according to both Weinberg and Willner.

“It will clearly take a concerted effort to make sure that we communicate by every means available to get the word out about the change, but I sense that the command is working that issue,” said Willner. “Some retirees are only able to visit Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall or Rader Clinic on an irregular basis - we have to make sure that they know about the initiative and are able to make alternate plans.”

Information about the new training and clinic operation schedules will reach patients in the form of phone calls, flyers in the clinic and Facebook posts on the JBM-HH and Rader clinic pages, said Weinberg.

• Date Taken: 04.16.2015
• Date Posted: 04.16.2015 17:56
• Story ID: 160253
• Location: JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VA, US