Re-Engineering Emergency Medical Services at Moncrief Army Community Hospital, Fort Jackson, South Carolina

This project involves the development and evaluation of four courses of action COA with the goal of finding a structure for emergency and traditional primary care services which would increase and improve access to primary care at Moncrief Army Community Hospital MACH. The hypothesis of this study is that the MACH emergency medical services can be re-engineered in a manner which will increase the efficient use of resources, while also maintaining, if not enhancing, the capability of providing MACH beneficiaries with optimal health care, and continuing to support the hospital mission. The COAs evaluated include 1 Maintain the MACH emergency room ER in its present form. 2 Establish a Department of DefenseVeterans Affairs resource-sharing agreement with the local Veterans Affairs hospital. 3 Convert the MACH ER into an acute care clinic. 4 Convert ER resources to alternate method of primary care delivery. COA 1 and 2 were both determined to be unacceptable. COA 3 and 4 were both acceptable, but COA 4 was considered to be the most optimal COA because it would result in significant cost savings and increased access to care.