Legislation on Sizing Military Medical Facilities Needed To Correct Improper Practices, Save Money, and Resolve Policy Conflicts

Gao ID: HRD-81-24 December 17, 1980

An examination was made of the extent to which the Department of Defense (DOD) should plan to provide space in its new and replacement medical facilities for retirees and dependents of retired and deceased members. This factor has important policy implications, because it will affect the cost of constructing and operating medical facilities in the future and the medical benefits available to military beneficiaries.

DOD should have the flexibility to plan the size of new military hospitals and clinics based on considerations of cost effectiveness, staff availability, realistic workload projections, and teaching and training requirements. Under existing legislation, only teaching and training requirements are considered in planning space for retirees and dependents of retired and deceased members in new or replacement medical facilities. New legislation could correct the services' current improper sizing practices, save money in the long run, and align the sizing policy with the policy for providing staff and other medical resources to facilities once they are built. Construction which would provide greater capacity would be consistent with DOD responsibility to provide adequate medical facilities to meet its responsibilities in a war or national emergency. Currently, the military services are required to limit the size of new hospitals and clinics to accomodate active-duty members and their dependents, plus additional capacity not exceeding 5 or 10 percent to meet training and teaching requirements. The three military services presently do not fully comply with DOD hospital sizing limitations. Either enforcement of the requirement or modification of the law is indicated.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: No director on record Team: No team on record Phone: No phone on record


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.