Alternative Methods to Finance Inpatient Active Duty Psychiatric Care Within the Great Plains Regional Medical Command

摘要

Historical, the Army Medical Department has provided inpatient psychiatric services to its active duty members at locations proximate to the soldiers home station. With the application of managed care principles and the reality of the downsizing of Army forces, inpatient psychiatric care has regionalized. Using demographic, cost, and workload data for the ten military treatment tactilities in the Great Plains Regional Medical Command, it was determined that several alternatives are less costly than the current method of maintaining inpatient beds at several military locations and simultaneously utilizing supplemental care funds to purchase civilian inpatient psychiatric services. While operating a single regional referral center at Darnall Army Community Hospital is more cost effective than operating such a center at William Beaumont Army Medical Center, the most cost effective of the three alternatives considered is that of not maintaining military inpatient beds and relying solely on supplemental care arrangements for the provision of inpatient active duty psychiatric services. This study did not consider other important, non-financial influences, but the implication is that less costly alternatives to our current method of providing active duty inpatient psychiatric care exist.