About The Reserve Health Readiness Program Continues Medical and Dental Readiness

Last updated on 2009-08-06 09:44:33

The Reserve Health Readiness Program Continues Medical and Dental Readiness

The Reserve Health Readiness Program (RHRP), in partnership with the Armed Forces Reserve Components, continues to increase the medical and dental readiness of Service members.

RHRP provides medical and dental readiness services that include Periodic Health Assessments (PHAs), dental examinations and x-rays, limited dental treatment, immunizations, vision services, audio services, laboratory services, physical examinations, Post-Deployment Health Reassessments (PDHRAs), occupational health services, vaccine storage and distribution, and other services.

Cdr. Diedre N. Presley, U.S. Public Health Service, RHRP's Senior Program Manager within Force Health Protection & Readiness (FHP&R), gave an update on the RHRP before a group of representatives from Military Service Organizations and Veterans Service Organizations (MSO/VSO) on June 18 at the FHP&R offices in Falls Church, Va.

Cdr. Presley spoke of how the program for Reserve Component forces is growing, and that its number of annual Periodic Health Assessments, which replaced the five-year physical exam, has risen by more than five-fold so far in FY '09 over FY '08.

Other services provided by the program such as dental exams and immunizations are also on pace to eclipse those of last year. RHRP services, which are aimed at meeting Service members' Individual Medical Readiness needs and also include PDHRAs, are delivered in clinics, through call centers or by providers who are sent to up to hundreds of units throughout the U.S. and overseas each weekend to offer on-site services. Cdr. Presley said offering all services at one time in a given unit location attracts a captive audience and serves to improve and increase readiness. RHRP contract providers are further able to answer important questions and are trained to upload patient information into each relevant Service's database.

To provide this wide range of medical, dental and behavioral health services, RHRP uses a nationwide network of over 36,000 private providers of various disciplines from the Logistics Health, Inc., contract network. They are trained on the Service Component-specific requirements for all the Service members. RHRP services are provided through three models: in-clinic using the offices of the civilian provider network; on-site, where providers perform group services at unit locations; and a call center through which PDHRA assessments are conducted.

Cdr. Presley added that the amount of dental services RHRP provides has increased, and includes exams, x-rays and treatment management. MSO/VSO meeting attendees called the dental services a "real plus" and a "big win" that answers an overdue need to address Reserve and Guard members' dental health needs and make the whole force more ready.

During FY08, RHRP provided over 850,000 medical readiness services to Service members in each of the 50 states, District of Columbia, and U.S. Territories. Demand has grown so much that those numbers were exceeded within the first nine months of FY09. In that period RHRP provided services to almost 300,000 individual Service members. Those services included more than 120,000 Periodic Health Assessments, 135,000 dental exams, 160,000 immunizations, 110,000 vision screenings and eyewear exams, and 80,000 Post-Deployment Health Reassessments. Services have been expanded to Reservists in Germany.

The RHRP enhanced its services to include providing immunizations in the provider network. It reduced the minimum numbers required to hold a group event and implemented multiple new initiatives focused on improving dental readiness.

After medical and dental readiness service needs are identified and service requests are ordered and approved, the appointment or group event is coordinated and managed from beginning to end by the Service point of contact and Logistics Health. For individual appointments, RHRP, in conjunction with the Service member:

Assigns a licensed provider within 50 miles and schedules an appointment;
Ships kits to the Service member with the needed information and materials;
Re-confirms the appointment with the Service member;
Receives the documentation from the provider;
Does quality assurance checks to ensure all needed documentation is there and it adheres to high quality standards;
Determines if the Service member has any deployment limiting conditions and recommends further treatment or evaluation;
Provides dental treatment which will allow the Service member to be deployable;
Updates the pertinent Service Component medical and dental readiness database.

For group events, RHRP, in partnership with the Service Component unit point of contact:

Confirms information about the types and numbers of services needed;
Arranges all the logistics of assigning providers, arranging for their travel, assembling and delivering the needed equipment, forms, etc.;
Sets up the event and provides the services;
Handles retrieval of equipment and documentation;
Does quality assurance checks to ensure all needed documentation is there and it adheres to high quality standards;
Determines if the Service member has any deployment limiting conditions and recommends further treatment or evaluation;
Updates the pertinent Service Component medical readiness database.

The RHRP continues to evolve with the ever-changing Service Component requirements, helping them meet their essential but challenging medical readiness goals.

In addition to getting those services to the massive numbers of Service members across the nation and in the U.S. Territories, RHRP is keenly interested in providing a quality product. As such, it asks its end users to complete satisfaction surveys, as well as solicits feedback from the Service member's chain of command and Service Component points of contact. Overall, the satisfaction rate is over 95%, however, RHRP is striving for even better numbers.

For more information about the RHRP, please go to:

http://www.deploymentlink.osd.mil/image/outreach/rhrp_dental.pdf

http://www.deploymentlink.osd.mil/image/outreach/rhrp_pdhra.pdf

http://www.deploymentlink.osd.mil/image/outreach/rhrp.pdf

Further info can be obtained by emailing rhrp@tma.osd.mil.