Health Services Inspection to kick off for 97th Medical Group

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Kathleen Polesnak
  • 97th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  As the Mighty 97th gets ready for the wing-wide compliance inspection just a few months away, another major inspection will kick off next week.

The Health Services Inspection, to be conducted by the Air Force Inspection Agency, as well as the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, will take place June 6-10. The HSI inspection is comparable to a compliance inspection Air Force wings undergo every two years but with focus on health care.

According to the AAAHC, the purpose of the inspection is "to improve the quality of health care delivered by (an) organization." These inspections are conducted to provide senior Air Force leadership with accurate data upon which to base policy decisions, as well as give medical units a thorough, accurate assessment of their ability to fulfill their peacetime and wartime missions.

"It really is an opportunity to show how good we are," said 1st Lt. Cory Nordstrom, group practice manager for the 97th Medical Group. "We are an exceptional facility and we do provide great care with great access and great ambulatory service. It's a chance for us to reaffirm that all our programs are in order for the safety of the patient."

Though the inspection is primarily focused on the 97th MDG, this inspection is a wing-wide inspection. While the inspection items directly involve the medical group, they indirectly touch every member of the wing.

If the clinic receives a satisfactory or higher, it receives full accreditation as an ambulatory care facility and is not inspected again for three years. If it were to receive an unsatisfactory, it could be put on probation or be closed, depending on the severity of the findings, Lieutenant Nordstrom explained.

Successfully passing this inspection is crucial to the 97th MDG's ability to provide healthy Airmen to combatant commanders.

"If Airmen can't be seen here, that really shuts down a lot of our mission," Lieutenant Nordstrom said. "We wouldn't be able to do any of our post-deployment health; we wouldn't be able to get people their physicals, or day-to-day things like getting an appointment when they're sick. It affects people on a day-to-day basis in a lot of ways."

Inspectors will review records, processes and patient care, as well as the public health and medical readiness aspects that make up the medical group. Some of these include day-to-day food, air and water monitoring; flight medicine; mental health; laboratory and diagnostic services; and immunizations. It is also responsible for conducting pre- and post-deployment health screenings to help identify people who may be experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder or other combat-related health issues.

"All of that comes together to make sure all of our deployers go out on time and that we have a medically-ready force," the lieutenant said.

Overall, the medical clinic here serves about 7,000 beneficiaries both on and off base, including active-duty, reserve, guard and retired military members, as well as their families.