FORT BENNING, Georgia -- Beginning March 5, Fort Benning, Georgia's Martin Army Community Hospital will provide nutritional outpatient care at two additional locations for its patients, creating a "one-stop" approach for those patients located in different areas of the installation.
According to 1st Lt. Megan Kwon, chief, Clinical Dietetics Branch, Nutrition Care Division at Martin Army Community Hospital, the move will make things more simple for patients.
"To better reach our patrons, patients and customers, we've decided to go to where they are. To go to where they are is a better convenience for them because what we're seeing is that there are my barriers to overcoming behavioral change. One of them is location and having that easy access to that kind of information," Kwon explained.
Kwon explained that the desire to move to Building 9257, which houses the installation's Army Wellness Center, was the driving force behind the upcoming changes.
"Building 9257 has a lot of great resources for our patients, and we often refer them to the Army Wellness Center, so what's better than moving to the same building that they're in?" she explained. "We often talk about the metabolic testing that they can do, and they have the body fat analysis, as well. So instead of saying, 'hey, go to this building, or call this number to make an appointment, we can now tell them to go to that desk down the hall."
Primary dietitian patients will now be seen in Building 9257, but the facility will also service any group classes that the units wish to schedule.
Active-duty individual patients will be seen at the recently opened Sledgehammer Clinic, located at Kelley Hill. Also, bariatric patients will be seen in the general surgery clinic, as the primary bariatric dietician will be located there.
"Instead of bariatric patients coming to a separate location, they have all of the equipment in General Surgery, so now they're going to go to the same place and she will see them out of that clinic," Kwon said. It's more of a combine care approach. They can also combine their appointments, so that they won't have to go to a separate location."
Kwon pointed out that a centralized services is the same approach given to nutrition outpatient care at the other clinic as well.
"Instead of having the green-suiters come to the hospital, we're going to them, and we're going out to the Sledgehammer Clinic on Kelly Hill and trying to see the Soldiers there because we understand that they have very busy schedules and a lots of demands," she said. "By doing that, we can decrease one of those barriers without having them drive all the way to the hospital, and we're having a lot of success with that."
Social Sharing