Military Health Center.. Any good?

[teacher123]

To all you military families,
We are relocating to PAX next month and I'm trying to decide whether to stick to the medical center on base for medical care, or to change to Tricare Standard and go to civilian providers that are offbase. Anyone have a good/bad experience on base? What are the hours like? Any afterhour care? How long does it take to get an appointment? Thanks in advance for your help. By the way, I will be needing a pediatrician and obgyn as well as a general family practice doctor.

Thanks!!

 

[lulu belle]

It's not bad. Now depending on which provider you have for pediatrics, that may cause an issue. One of the docs is a very heavily accented Asian, he is older, so set in his ways, my son does not feel comfortable with him at all. This past year, he had diagnosed my son as ADHD, when I had taken him to other doctors that did not think he did have it, just a "childhood phase". Now obgyn, there is women's health here, and the doc in there is very nice. She is civilian, don't have to worry about her leaving suddenly on you. There is no after hour care, a doc on call if it's something simple that can be solved with a question, otherwise, the ER at the hospital about 20 minutes from the base (I actually think there may be an urgent care place closer, but I've never used it, not sure on that). The appt line opens at 7, however the clinic doesn't open until 8, not sure what time they close. It really depends what your appt is for, some times you can get in rather quickly, other times no. Here is the link to the clinic here if you don't have it: http://www.paxriverclinic.med.navy.mil/

 

[teacher123]

THANK YOU so much, especially for the link to the clinic... that helps a lot!!

It's not bad. Now depending on which provider you have for pediatrics, that may cause an issue. One of the docs is a very heavily accented Asian, he is older, so set in his ways, my son does not feel comfortable with him at all. This past year, he had diagnosed my son as ADHD, when I had taken him to other doctors that did not think he did have it, just a "childhood phase". Now obgyn, there is women's health here, and the doc in there is very nice. She is civilian, don't have to worry about her leaving suddenly on you. There is no after hour care, a doc on call if it's something simple that can be solved with a question, otherwise, the ER at the hospital about 20 minutes from the base (I actually think there may be an urgent care place closer, but I've never used it, not sure on that). The appt line opens at 7, however the clinic doesn't open until 8, not sure what time they close. It really depends what your appt is for, some times you can get in rather quickly, other times no. Here is the link to the clinic here if you don't have it: http://www.paxriverclinic.med.navy.mil/

 

[PJumper]

To all you military families,
We are relocating to PAX next month and I'm trying to decide whether to stick to the medical center on base for medical care, or to change to Tricare Standard and go to civilian providers that are offbase. Anyone have a good/bad experience on base? What are the hours like? Any afterhour care? How long does it take to get an appointment? Thanks in advance for your help. By the way, I will be needing a pediatrician and obgyn as well as a general family practice doctor.

Thanks!!

Are you or your spouse still on active duty? If not then you have to go off-base. The clinic here is small and cannot accomodate the large retiree population in the area. If you're still active duty status, you can ask for off-base referal specially for women's care and other specialty clinic. Major military hospitals are Walter Reed and Bethesda, both about 1 1/2 hours away.

 

[GRSHPPR]

If I were you, I would go off base. I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth pulled and I had to go back on two different times because it wasn’t healing right. Also the medicine that was prescribed to me made me sick. One thing that I had the most, my wife had an appointment to see one of the doctors and he later called and cancelled because we were interfering with this CWS Friday

 

[teverheart2002]

I think that it depends on why you are doing, who you see, and the day that you go. Personally I thought that the doctors here took better care of me than the ones at our previous place. Of course there is always that one instance. But you have that anywhere. Haven't been to dental, or needed a ped.

GYN is pretty good, but you only go once a year (for the most part). They do not have OB, so if you get pregnant, or have pregnancy-related "stuff" then you are outsourced off base.

 

[mAlice]

It's not bad. Now depending on which provider you have for pediatrics, that may cause an issue. One of the docs is a very heavily accented Asian, he is older, so set in his ways, my son does not feel comfortable with him at all. This past year, he had diagnosed my son as ADHD, when I had taken him to other doctors that did not think he did have it, just a "childhood phase". Now obgyn, there is women's health here, and the doc in there is very nice. She is civilian, don't have to worry about her leaving suddenly on you. There is no after hour care, a doc on call if it's something simple that can be solved with a question, otherwise, the ER at the hospital about 20 minutes from the base (I actually think there may be an urgent care place closer, but I've never used it, not sure on that). The appt line opens at 7, however the clinic doesn't open until 8, not sure what time they close. It really depends what your appt is for, some times you can get in rather quickly, other times no. Here is the link to the clinic here if you don't have it: http://www.paxriverclinic.med.navy.mil/

I was in the clinic yesterday to make an appt. The Women's Health Care thing is no longer.

I use the clinic, but I also have Tricare Prime and use docs outside the clinic.

If you don't like your PCP, you can change to another team.

 

[mAlice]

Are you or your spouse still on active duty? If not then you have to go off-base. The clinic here is small and cannot accomodate the large retiree population in the area. If you're still active duty status, you can ask for off-base referal specially for women's care and other specialty clinic. Major military hospitals are Walter Reed and Bethesda, both about 1 1/2 hours away.

Ret. Dep. Use it all the time.

 

[Daffy]

Ret. Dep. Use it all the time.

It depends on when the sponsor retired. People who had been going there already when they made the change were grandfathered, after that any new retirees and the families have to go off base.

 

[Daffy]

To all you military families,
We are relocating to PAX next month and I'm trying to decide whether to stick to the medical center on base for medical care, or to change to Tricare Standard and go to civilian providers that are offbase. Anyone have a good/bad experience on base? What are the hours like? Any afterhour care? How long does it take to get an appointment? Thanks in advance for your help. By the way, I will be needing a pediatrician and obgyn as well as a general family practice doctor.

Thanks!!

I think the worst part is their decision to move the pharmacy from the clinic to the exchange. The last thing that I want to do when I'm feeling is sit for an hour in the mall/food court.

 

[mAlice]

It depends on when the sponsor retired. People who had been going there already when they made the change were grandfathered, after that any new retirees and the families have to go off base.

When, exactly, was that cut off?

...and, if they're active duty, don't they have use of the clinic?

 

[Lenny]

When, exactly, was that cut off?

...and, if they're active duty, don't they have use of the clinic?

Only the active duty member is required to use the clinic. Spouse and kids have the option to go offbase.

 

[Suz]

When, exactly, was that cut off?

...and, if they're active duty, don't they have use of the clinic?

That decision was made years ago. Occasionally they open it back up and allow more retirees in, they just did it a few months back. Now it's closed again.

And Lorraine Diana is the womens health PA. She's awesome!

Most of the Dr's are new. They've had 95% of them transfer out this year. New one's are coming in all the time. And if they can't get a new active duty dr to come in their hiring contracted Dr's or not replacing some at all.

 

[itsbob]

I haven't used military medicine since the early 90's. If I have a choice (which I do) I'd use civilian medicine at every opportunity. There are some troublesome doctors around here in the community, but going civilian you get to choose not to go back if you don't like them.

I don't go to the doctors often enough anyways, but I've been really happy with the doctors & dentists we have here.

That and I'm retired, and I remember being on Active duty waiting hours for care while the clinic and hospital staff were busy attending to retirees and their families and I always wondered what did these people chose to do with their lives after they retired that they still had to depend on military care? I choose to leave military doctors free-er to take care of those on Active Duty (at leasat that's what I hope).