Inpatient Obstetric Care at Irwin Army Community Hospital: A Study to Determine the Most Efficient Organization

摘要

This study attempts to compare, analyze, and recommend the most efficient model with which to deliver inpatient obstetrics and gynecological services to the served population of Irwin Army Community Hospital. During a time in which the United States Armed Forces continue to experience increased budgetary constraints, the cost of delivering health care to military beneficiaries continues to increase. Decreases in the overall military budget after considering the effects of inflation have been translated into ever more severe restrictions on the budgets of military health care facilities. At a time when health care budgets are facing some of the greatest restrictions in recent memory, the military managed care model, TRICARE, has placed military facilities in competition with civilian institutions for what had previously been a captive market. This competition for enrollees translates into competition for funding as dollars follow patients to the facility of choice. The results of this study serve to identify the most cost effective delivery model for inpatient OB/GYN. As indicated, transformation from the traditional model of inpatient OB/GYN to the more modern LDR/LDRP model would serve to decrease costs and increase patient satisfaction. Increasing patient satisfaction would allow military health care to retain beneficiaries and funds that otherwise would be lost to the civilian sector.