DOD Health Care

Extent to Which Military Physicians Perform Administrative Tasks Gao ID: HRD-89-53 February 13, 1989

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed: (1) the extent to which military physicians performed routine administrative and clerical tasks; and (2) efforts to define and alleviate the problem.

GAO found that: (1) the Department of Defense (DOD) and the military services agree that physicians perform administrative and clerical tasks which detract from clinical practice time and adversely affect physician productivity; (2) many physicians reported that they had inadequate clerical support staff; (3) although the military services have taken action to determine the extent and impact of the problem, none of the efforts has fully defined the problem's magnitude; (4) in March 1987, DOD directed that the services develop joint standards providing for adequate administrative support; and (5) the services believed that the standards needed to be revised before implementation.



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