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Defense Health Care: Medical Surveillance Improved Since Gulf War, but Mixed Results in Bosnia

NSIAD-97-136 Published: May 13, 1997. Publicly Released: May 13, 1997.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO determined what action, if any, the Department of Defense (DOD) has taken to improve medical surveillance before, during, and after deployments, focusing on Operation Joint Endeavor.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense In light of the problems discussed in this report, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, along with the military services, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Unified Commands, as appropriate, to complete expeditiously and implement a DOD-wide policy on medical surveillance for all major deployments of U.S. forces, using lessons learned during Operation Joint Endeavor and the Gulf War.
Closed – Implemented
A DOD Instruction, "Implementation and Application of Joint Medical Surveillance for Deployments," was approved by the Deputy Secretary of Defense on August 7, 1997, and a DOD Directive, "Joint Preventive Medicine Support of Military Operations," was approved on August 30, 1997. The DOD instruction and directive still need to be published, disseminated, and implemented.
Department of Defense In light of the problems discussed in this report, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, along with the military services, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Unified Commands, as appropriate, to develop procedures to ensure that medical surveillance policies are implemented to include emphasizing the need for: (1) unit commanders to ensure that all servicemembers receive the required medical assessments in a timely manner; and (2) medical personnel to maintain complete and accurate medical records.
Closed – Implemented
Responsibilities for ensuring implementation of the medical surveillance policies and procedures were established through the publication and dissemination of the DOD Instruction, "Implementation and Application of Joint Medical Surveillance for Deployments" and the DOD Directive, "Joint Preventive Medicine Support of Military Operations."
Department of Defense In light of the problems discussed in this report, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, along with the military services, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Unified Commands, as appropriate, to develop procedures for providing accurate and complete medical assessment information to the centralized database.
Closed – Implemented
The procedures for providing accurate and complete medical assessment information to the centralized database will be established through the publication and dissemination of the DOD Instruction, "Implementation and Application of Joint Medical Surveillance for Deployments" and the DOD Directive, "Joint Preventive Medicine Support of Military Operations."
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should direct the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Requirements and Resources to investigate the completeness of information in the Defense Manpower Data Center's personnel deployment database and take corrective actions to ensure that the deployment information is accurate for servicemembers who deploy to a theater.
Closed – Implemented
According to the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Requirements and Resources, the office knows the deficiencies in the Defense Manpower Data Center's database. It is anticipated that the deficiencies will be corrected From implementation of DOD instruction, "Implementation and Application of Joint Medical Surveillance for Deployments", Issued August 7, 1997 and DOD Directive, "Joint Prevent Medicine Support of Military Operations", issued August 30, 1997.

Full Report

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Topics

Data integrityHealth care servicesHealth hazardsMedical examinationsMedical information systemsMedical recordsMilitary operationsMilitary personnelDatabasesU.S. Army