I pit TriCare and jacked up appointment process!

The BBQ Pit
1

I hate hate hate TriCare and the way they handle off-base referrals. I also hate the current “walk-in sick call” system at this base!

Here’s how the system used to work: you get sick, you call for a same-day appointment, you go see the doc the same day.

Here’s how the system works now: You get sick. You have to wait until the next morning at 0700 and call the appointment line. When you call, they tell you there are no same-day appointments open but you can call back tomorrow at 0700. OR you can wait until the online appointments open at 0300 and go to the handy website to make an appointment for the same day (in theory).

My 6-year-old woke up in the middle of the night on Saturday, feeling poorly. With it being the weekend we had to wait until Monday to call for an appointment.

This morning (actually yesterday morning) at 0700 I called the appointment line but there were no appointments available, as always. I was told I can do two things: I can wait and call again at 0700 tomorrow (today) to see if there are any appointments open or I can wait until 0300 and go online to try to book an appointment. Thusly, here I am at freaking 0352 in the morning, having just spent nearly 45 minutes resetting a password because the old one expired since it had been more than 150 days since I’d logged in. The new password must contain between 14-25 characters, blah blah blah.

After finally getting in, there was only ONE appointment left for today–at 1300. Are you kiddding me?? It’s 0345 and there is already only ONE appointment left for the entire day?? Glad I didn’t wait until 0700 to call! So I go ahead and click that I’ll take the appointment but HA HA…the joke is on me because someone beat me to the punch and now even that appointment is unavailable. I am screwed. Or more accurately my daughter is screwed.

My daughter is sick. She is miserable. OTC meds aren’t helping much and now she is developing pink eye. And now she’ll be missing another day of school thanks to this stupid system.

Now my next step is to call at 0700 and fight to get a referral off base. This usually takes all day and I’ll be unable to make an appointment until tomorrow. Which means another day of school missed.

There has got to be a better way. Seriously.

And yes, I know this is The Pit and there should be more vitriol but I’m tired.

FUCKING FUCKERS. (That’s all I can muster at this point. I’m going back to bed.)

2

What’s worse is the alternative: taking her to the ER and gumming that up when there are people who have more pressing needs, sitting there all day waiting to have your child seen.

The system needs to be revamped. Not lip-service revamped, totally redone from top to bottom.

Then again, count yourself lucky. There are millions without even that benefit. It could always be worse.

3

Ah yes, same day appointments! The bane of my existence for two years. My friend, you have here a bona-fide former USAF clinic nurse (still USAF, but mercifully escaped the clinic over a year and a half-ago.) A large part of my job was dealing with pissed off patients who couldn’t get same day appointments.

A few things…first, are you absolutely sure your daughter needs to see a doctor? If it’s a virus, or an upper respitory infection, there really isn’t much the doctor can do, other than give you more of the OTC meds you are already using and advise rest and fluids. Even pink-eye is usually viral, and resolves on it’s own. Yes, I know that’s frustrating. I know that dealing with time off work/school is difficult. Believe me, I’ve raised three kids of my own in the Tricare/CHAMPUS system.

That being said, you are there, you are the mom, I’m not, and if you are convinced that your daughter needs to see a doctor, well then, it’s not my place to tell you she doesn’t. That being said, where are you trying to get referred to off-base? A doctor, or an urgent care clinic? Where I was, dependents did not need a referral to be seen at an urgent care clinic, and I think that was system wide. Check with your Tricare office to see if that applies to your situation. Also, if you do, or if the particular clinic insists on one (as they sometimes do), see if your PCM, or his/her nurse, is amenable to placing retroactive referrals. I did that all the time for people, never had a problem with it. If this is the case, find out which UCC dependents go to most often, they will be more familiar with the whole process and will be less likely to give you a hard time.

If you cannot be seen at a UCC, or really want to be seen on base, do this. Start calling for a same-day appointment at 0655. At first, you’ll get the whole “not open yet spiel”. Keep hitting redial as fast as you can. You are very likely to be one of the first in line if you do this.

As a last resort, do this, as I did once in my life when one of my kids (I don’t remember which one) absolutely needed to be seen, and I could not get an appointment for love or money. Take your child to the pediatric/family care clinic. Announce to the people at the window that your child is sick, and you will not leave until they’ve been seen. This will piss the clinic people off. Be firm. If they get rude with you, ask to see the flight commander/whatever the equivalent is wherever you are/patient advocate. You will be worked in, I promise. You will not be popular, but you will be worked in. This should be an absolute last resort, and only if your particular facility does not have an ED/urgent care clinic.

I hope this helps, and I hope your daughter feels better soon.

4

I’m not trying to be snide and I hope it doesn’t come across that way, but in an instance such as this can you not just call around and see if you can book an appointment with a GP referred by a friend or found in the phone book? Most doctors also have 24-hour emergency numbers you can call and frequently the on call physician will call in antibiotics or whatever else you may need to get you by until regular office hours the next day (or on Monday if it’s the weekend). Office visits here where I live average $55 and a shot or antibiotics wouldn’t add much to that. Plus Wal-Mart, Walgreens, etc. have all sorts of meds (antibiotics and such) available in their $4 programs.

It looks to me like this would be vastly preferable to what you’re having to go through. (And who the hell implements these ridiculous systems anyway?)

5

Tricare fucking blows. I live in the DC metro area, too far away from any base to use the base facilities so I have to use a fucked up little clinic that is 45minutes away from my house.

I won’t go into all the details but my wife hates it and I do to.

6

As a retiree, Tri-Care makes me look forward to Medicare.

7

Couldn’t you just take the sprog to a walk-in clinic?