Booking appointments at the Eisenhower Army Medical Center

By Mr. Wesley P Elliott (Army Medicine)June 24, 2015

FORT GORDON, Ga. -- The Eisenhower Army Medical Center Appointment Line call center, located on Fort Gordon, fills requests for medical appointments based on the caller's needs with a goal to meet the caller's needs during the first phone call.

While EAMC patients can use TRICARE Online at www.tricareonline.com where they can schedule and see all of your PCM team's open appointments, those who want to speak with someone, the appointment line gives patients appointments based on the patient's request and the provider's availability.

Although staff shortages caused by military transitions limit the availability of appointments during the summer months, beneficiaries are entitled to have access to health care.

Acute appointments are to be booked within 24 hours, routine appointments within seven calendar days, and wellness or specialty appointments within 28 calendar days, according to 32 Code of Federal Regulations part 199.17.

There are no time limits for follow-up appointments as they are determined by the provider on an individual basis.

The call center agent will first look to book an appointment with the patient's primary care manager but if that can't be done within the "access to care" standards, the patient may be scheduled with another provider on the PCM Team, the clinic, or another primary care clinic.

Based on OTSG/MEDCOM Policy Memo 15-019 and 32 Code of Federal Regulations, part 199.17, if your medical treatment facility is unable to meet the "access to care" standard of 24 hours set forth by Army Medicine, then the Call Center Nurse can authorize outside urgent care.

When the availability of appointments are exhausted, the patient will be transferred to the Call Center Nurse who, based on an assessment of the patient's condition, will attempt to set a timely appointment with a provider, offer self-management advice, or if appropriate, refer the patient for acute care (Care needed within 24 hours) to outside urgent care facilities.

The Emergency Room should only be used for life or limb-saving care, but if you are in doubt, contact the Nurse Advice Line at 1-800-TRICARE (1-800-874-2273), Option 1, or go to the closest ER.

EAMC strives to give you the best possible service by providing all of our medical support staff with customer service training and by recording every call into the Central Appointments Line.

The call center supervisor and other leadership randomly listen to these calls for quality control purposes and, if issues are found, then counseling and education or disciplinary action are taken.

EAMC Leadership will not tolerate rude or disrespectful behavior from their staff members and EAMC relies heavily on the input from beneficiaries via completion of the Army Provider Level Satisfaction Survey (APLSS), Tricare Inpatient Satisfaction Survey (TRISS), or Interactive Customer Evaluation (ICE) submissions as an alert to problem areas.

When ICE comments are received, they are routed to the appropriate clinic or service and action is taken to resolve the complaint. The actions are then documented within the ICE system.

All ICE comments and the recorded phone calls are reviewed to establish what actions should be taken and a supervisor responds to all ICE comments that have provided contact information.

EAMC makes every effort to resolve ICE comments within a week of receipt and the status of ICE comments is briefed regularly to the medical center commander.

When new families come to Fort Gordon, they are enrolled in TRICARE Prime based on the OTSG/MEDCOM Policy Memo 13-065, AMEDD Enrollment Policy, para 4 (b), that states that all beneficiaries who live within a 30-minute drive of the medical center must be enrolled in TRICARE Prime.

Commanders may enroll beneficiaries who live between 30 minutes and up to 100 miles away if the beneficiary requests to be enrolled.

Beneficiaries whose primary care provider is a specialist and the specialty care is not available at the medical center may be exempted from seeing a PCM at the medical center.

Non-active duty beneficiaries who choose not to enroll in TRICARE Prime can change their coverage to TRICARE Standard or TRICARE Extra. There are no enrollment forms or fees for TRICARE Standard or TRICARE Extra, but you will have an annual deductible for outpatient services and cost-sharing for most services.

Non-active duty beneficiaries who are enrolled in TRICARE Prime and want to switch to TRICARE Standard or Extra should call Humana Military at 1-800-444-5445 to be disenrolled from TRICARE Prime.

For information on for TRICARE Standard or TRICARE Extra, visit www.tricare.mil/factsheets and enter TRICARE Standard in the search option for detailed information and costs.