Skip to main content (Press Enter).
 News
    
        Photos

    Week in Photos

    Air Force TV

    Commentaries

    Features

    Art

    About Us
    
        Air Force Senior Leaders
    
        SECAF

    CSAF

    CMSAF

    Biographies

    Fact Sheets

    SECAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library
    
        CSAF Leadership Library 2022

    CSAF Leadership Library 2021

    CSAF Reading List Pre-2020 Archive
    
        2018 CSAF Reading List

    2017 CSAF Reading List

    2016 CSAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library 2023

    CMSAF Leadership Library

    50 Years of the CMSAF

    Adjunct Professors

    Air Force Strategic Documents

    Arctic Strategy

    Empowered Airmen

    State Licensure Portability

    Careers

    AF Federal Advisory Committees

    AF 75th Anniversary

    Policy Updates

    AF Content Management

    Contact Us

    AF Sites
    
        Site RegistrationU.S. Air Force LogoAir Force

        Policy UpdatesNewsroomReoptimizationBIOGRAPHIESAF Senior Leaders      Wright-Patterson Medical Center improves timelines for veterans’ medical carePublished May 7, 2015
                    
                    By Amy Rollins
                    
                    
                    Skywrighter Staff
            **WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFNS) --** A new agreement was signed here May 1 in an effort to dramatically improve the timeliness of medical care to veterans throughout Ohio and optimize the training and readiness of personnel at the Wright-Patterson Medical Center (WPMC).
Col. Timothy Ballard, the commander of the 88th Medical Group, and Jack Hetrick, the network director for Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN 10), signed the agreement to create the Buckeye Federal Healthcare Consortium, charged to optimize the utilization of Defense Department and Veterans Affairs medical resources in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.
“This is a phenomenal opportunity to bring in increased case complexity and some more through-put while not adversely impacting at all beneficiaries through our TRICARE system,” Ballard said. “This is just involving specialty care. Everybody’s primary care teams are exactly the same and unchanged. You’ll still have the exact same access to seeing your primary care providers as you ever had before.’
In essence, the agreement will allow the VA to send veterans to WPMC for inpatient or outpatient services, expanding the current relationship between VISN 10 and the DOD. Data about fulfilling VA patients’ needs in a timely manner will be compared with services available at the WPMC.
“This is a huge deal in terms of not only public/public partnerships but this is a huge deal in supporting our veterans,” said Col. John Devillier, the commander of the 88th Air Base Wing. “It’s monumentally important in terms of the services that we can provide to the veterans who have earned that entitlement. On the flip side, it does great things for our medical staff here at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.”
The commander explained that by providing care to the veterans from the VA, medical center staff members’ credentialing is aided and their skills are enhanced, resulting in even better care to warfighters.
“It’s mutually beneficial on both sides of the aisle,” Devillier said. “This provides our medical staff the opportunity to view cases that normally they would not see, ones that are much more complex and more in line with what they would see in a deployed environment.”
Devillier commended Ballard for his leadership in bringing the agreement to fruition.
The agreement will pave the way for future agreements between the VA and the DOD nationally, he said.
Hetrick said Dayton and Columbus VA centers have been referring patients to the 88 MDG.
“Now we are able to extend it to all of our facilities throughout VISN 10 which is really a great opportunity,” he said.
“Our task now is to continue to work closely with the Air Force in providing access to effective and quality health care services and programs. We will give every veteran the seamless, integrative, responsive and personalized experience,” Hetrick said. “This is one measure that helps achieve our vision.”
While Ohio veterans’ wait times for care have been better than in other places, Hetrick said, the VA focused on meeting the veterans’ timeliness expectations, and the partnership will assist that.
Ballard said when he was hired eight months ago by Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Thomas Travis, the Air Force surgeon general, he was charged with taking care of the business, ensuring the 88 MDG’s personnel were optimally trained and taking care of as many patients as possible. He began work on the agreement almost from his first day, he said.
“I saw this as an opportunity to partner with the VA in a symbiotic manner,” Ballard said. “We have capacity in our sub-specialties across the board to bring in quite a bit of volume.”
He pointed out that the WPMC is a comprehensive medical center that provides care to a young, healthy population, but that means not all sub-specialty physicians are completely current to deploy and take care of anyone in harm’s way.
He credited Lt. Col. Thomas Lesnick and other staff members for their assistance with the agreement.
The general remarked that focusing on readiness and being prepared to go to war again is the medical force’s next challenge. The training pipeline of doctors, nurses and technicians at the 88th MDG will benefit from caring for the additional veterans.
“We really benefit from taking care of veterans so these veterans, who have contributed so much, will now contribute in another way,” Travis said. “We get to take great care of them, which is a true privilege and an honor, but they get to contribute to the readiness of the next generation.
“This agreement is custom-made for success,” Travis said.Wright-Patterson AFB 



AFMC 



health care 



VA Featured News
        Senior Leader Priorities
                SecAF, CSAF, CMSAF begin Indo-Pacific trip focused on ACE
                    
                    DAF leaders talk budget, reoptimizing the force
                    
                    DAF leaders speak at National Character and Leadership Symposium
                    
                    DAF members recognized during BEYA STEM awards
                    
                    DAF senior enlisted advisors discuss Airmen, Guardians in the fightInnovation
                F-16s arrive to be modified for autonomous testing
                    
                    AFWERX director discusses role of tech startups, quick innovation in Great Power Competition
                    
                    DAF delivers lethality at the speed of data during Project Convergence Capstone 4
                    
                    DAF welcomes industry partners to HQ development program
                    
                    DAF announces Spark Tank 2024 finalistsMAJCOM News
                Safety enterprise announces new mission, vision, goals in 2024 strategic plan
                    
                    Air Combat Command welcomes new commander
                    
                    USAFE-AFAFRICA commander discusses Integrated Air, Missile Defense during Munich Security Conference
                    
                    Flosi to AFMC family: Embrace change, make every day count
                    
                    AMC rises to increasing global tension
 Quick Links
AccessibilityContact UsEqual OpportunityFOIA | Privacy | Section 508Information QualityInspector GeneralJAG Court-Martial DocketLink DisclaimerNo FEAR ActOpen GovernmentOSI Tip LinePlain LanguageQuestionsResilienceRSSSite MapVeterans Crisis LineCareers
Join the Air ForceAir Force BenefitsAir Force CareersAir Force ReserveAir National GuardCivilian ServiceConnect
            Get Social with Us
            
            Official United States Air Force Website
    Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil