CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
They never touch a patient. They never fill a prescription. They never accomplish an X-ray but they are the backbone of any healthcare organization. Healthcare administration encompasses command, administrative, logistics and education functions supporting the provision of healthcare.
The 437th Medical Group has healthcare administrators involved in the following areas:
The executive officer: They support the medical group commander who is responsible for the 437th Airlift Wing's medical operations budget and healthcare of the Department of Defense beneficiaries.
The group practice manager: They assess clinical business practices with an emphasis on improving clinical product line performance and promotes the provision of high-quality, cost-effective healthcare services by assisting providers, professional, support and administrative staff in optimizing patient care for 10 clinics.
The information systems flight: They service a healthcare staff of more than 300 users, 292 workstations and 10 servers in five buildings for all the beneficiaries.
The Tricare operations and patient administration flight: They provide administrative support, to include outpatient records, patient registration and appointment line bookings to the medical professionals of the family practice clinic.
The medical logistics flight: They manage war reserve material valued at more than five million dollars and more than four million dollars in pharmaceuticals which permit more than 170,000 in patient prescriptions and 550,000 in home station medical response programs.
The readiness flight: They track all deployment-related training and oversee the medical unit readiness training program, consisting of disaster team training for 11 teams and readiness skills verification program training for 26 Air Force Specialty Codes.
The resource management flight: They manage the budget in addition to the medical expense and performance reporting system, medical affirmative claims, contracts, manpower, memorandums of understanding with base agencies, the cost center manager program and the third party collection program which recouped more than 700,000 thousand dollars in reimbursements last fiscal year.
The 437 MDG also has healthcare administrators which include officers, enlisted, civilians and contractors.
The officers attend the commissioned officers training and an 11-week healthcare administration course.
After basic training, enlisted Airmen attend a six-week healthcare administration course. Both classes are of the medical service corps which is an extension of the Air Force Medical Service Corps.
The civilians and contractors who join the team have administrative backgrounds or receive on-the-job training.
Daily, each one of them strive to ensure the clinical staff have what they need to elevate patient health while eliminating any hassles the patient encounters before, during or after receiving care.
The 437 MDG would not be able to meet the needs of patients if they did not have the administrative assistance of healthcare administrators which include officers, enlisted, civilians and contractors.