Question: After driving 45 minutes to get to Hill's medical clinic on March 22, an Airman waves me away from the front door of the clinic. A sign is posted saying to go around to the ambulance entrance. After driving around to find parking, I'm told the clinic is closed -- no admission.
I came to pick up a prescription submitted March 16. Now it's 45 miles back and two hours of vacation time for nothing. No heads up, no customer service. Hoping that the Rx won't be returned to inventory before I can return and hopefully find the clinic open.
Answer: We apologize for the inconvenience you experienced at the 75th Medical Group on March 22. As a veteran, you will understand the importance of training for our unique wartime missions, and we were actively involved in a basewide exercise that morning. The sign that you referenced was an exercise message intended for simulated injured patients, and in the future we will clarify our signs to reduce confusion.
We strive to communicate any disruption of services as far in advance as possible and through a variety of venues in order to reduce inconvenience to our customers. We appreciate your feedback as it helps us to improve our service, and we welcome any ideas on how we can better advertise our future clinic closures. With our customers in mind, beginning in late February we posted signs at the entrances and at the Pharmacy window detailing our closure on March 22. We had a message on the Pharmacy Information Board and clinic plasma screens, and the Pharmacy also listed the pending closure on all medication bags. Our "Medic Messenger" newsletter included the information, and this was distributed through avarious e-mail groups. In addition, our telephone prescription filling/refilling system announced the delayed opening of the clinic beginning Feb. 25.
If it is inconvenient for you to travel 45 miles to fill your prescriptions, there are two other TriCare options available for filling prescriptions that might better suit your personal situation. One is the TriCare mail order pharmacy which will mail your prescriptions to your door, and the other is the wide availability of network retail pharmacies. Information on these options can be found at www.tricare.mil. While the 75th Medical Group strives to provide pharmacy services for beneficiaries Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., there will be times in the future when reduced hours or closures occur due to our unique military mission.
If you have any questions or concerns, or further feedback, please contact our 75th Medical Group Patient Advocate, Julie Piper, at (801) 586-9761. You matter!
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