Defense Infrastructure: The Navy Needs Better Documentation to Support Its Proposed Military Treatment Facilities on Guam
Highlights
The Navy determined that its current hospital on Guam does not meet modern facility standards. Moreover, the military population on Guam is expected to grow from 15,000 to over 39,000 due to DOD plans to move Marine Corps units from Okinawa, Japan to Guam and expand other on- island capabilities. The Navy plans to construct a new hospital and two outpatient clinics as part of its facility solution to replace the current hospital and accommodate additional health care requirements. This report (1) describes the Navy's plans for developing its military treatment facility solution to meet the expected increases in the military population on Guam, and (2) examines the extent to which the Navy is assured that its proposed military treatment facility solution on Guam will sufficiently meet the requirements for the expected increase in military population. To address these objectives, GAO reviewed documentation including the Navy's plans for its military treatment facility solution and interviewed key officials within the Military Health System
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | In order to ensure that the Navy's proposed branch health clinics on Guam are properly reviewed and are consistent with Military Health System goals of having appropriately sized and configured facilities to meet the health care needs of military beneficiaries in a cost-effective manner, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Navy to provide clearly documented analyses to TRICARE Management Activity as part of DOD's process for issuing design authorizations for military treatment facilities. These analyses should, at a minimum, provide details of the basis for its health care workload and staffing requirements on Guam. These documented analyses should also include the specific health care requirements to be met at each of the branch health clinics, and the methods and criteria for how staffing decisions for each facility were made. |
The Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) agreed with our recommendation to provide additional analyses and noted that since the draft report was issued, the Navy had already provided additional information to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) related to the planning for the two branch health clinics. We found that documents which helped verify that a logical and appropriate process was followed to determine the size and configuration of the proposed branch health clinics included a "Healthcare Requirements Analysis for Guam Navy Medical and Dental Facilities" final report and a brief on "Review of Branch Health Care Clinics Apra Harbor and Finegayan Guam". The implementation of this recommendation helped to ensure that the branch health clinics on Guam have been appropriately sized and located to meet beneficiary health care needs.
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