![]() We provided a draft of this report to DOD for review and comment. GAO also interviewed officials from DHA and each of the military services. GAO reviewed documentation that contains policy and guidance for these processes, including DHA's August 2019 procedure manual for managing clinical quality management in the Military Health System. In future work, GAO will examine the implementation of these processes at MTFs. This report describes DHA's processes for preventing and responding to quality and safety concerns about individual health care providers at MTFs. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 included a provision for GAO to review aspects of DOD's clinical quality management program, including its processes for reviewing the quality and safety of providers' care. DHA is responsible for ensuring the quality and safety of health care delivered by military and civilian health care providers, including contractors, through its clinical quality management program. For example, patient safety events-incidents that could have resulted or did result in harm to a patient-may occur during the course of providing health care services and may raise questions about the quality and safety of care delivered. ![]() As in all health care delivery settings, concerns may arise about the quality and safety of care delivered by individual health care providers at MTFs. Why GAO Did This StudyĭHA supports the delivery of health care to servicemembers and their families throughout the Military Health System. According to DOD officials, 27 DOD providers were reported to the NPDB for a summary suspension lasting greater than 30 days between February 1, 2020-when this requirement was implemented-and September 30, 2020. The NPDB is an electronic repository that collects and releases information on certain adverse actions and medical malpractice payments related to providers. DHA policy also specifies that summary suspensions lasting greater than 30 days, as well as any final adverse privileging actions, must be reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB). ![]() In particular, DHA policy specifies that the provider's privileges should be placed in summary suspension-a temporary removal of all or a portion of the provider's privileges-while a peer conducts an investigation of the concerns. These processes include 1) initial and ongoing monitoring of providers 2) taking action to deny, limit, or remove individual providers' ability to practice, known as adverse privileging action and 3) reviewing the care delivered by individual providers involved in certain patient safety events, known as potentially compensable event reviews.įor example, DHA policy establishes requirements for taking adverse privileging actions against a provider that either limit the care a provider is allowed to deliver at a facility or prevent the provider from delivering care altogether, when warranted. Specifically, DHA's August 2019 policy standardized processes for managing health care quality in the Military Health System, which superseded the policies of each of the military services (Air Force, Army, and Navy). ![]() The Defense Health Agency (DHA) within the Department of Defense (DOD) has established processes for preventing and responding to quality and safety concerns about individual providers delivering health care in military treatment facilities (MTF). ![]()
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