Doctor shortage at Landstuhl hospital
has civilians searching for alternatives
Story and photos by Sean E.
Cobb, Kaiserslautern bureau
Army Capt. Roy Addingston, a Landstuhl Regional Medical Center family practice nurse
practitioner, examins Linda Slaughter, the 415th Base Support Battalion family services
manager. |
LANDSTUHL, GERMANY — Landstuhl Regional Medical Center does not have enough
doctors to treat all of its patients, so the 9,300 civilian government employees — as
well as their dependents — in the Kaiserslautern area will not be able to schedule or
receive basic medical care at the hospital, officials at the hospital revealed this week.
"LRMC is experiencing an acute shortage of primary care providers in the family
practice clinic," said Army Lt. Col. Francis Bannister, the medical center’s
chief of staff and health care administrator. "We are focusing on Tricare Prime
patients. Space is very limited."
Tricare Prime patients are active-duty military members and their dependents first,
then retirees and their dependents enrolled in Tricare Prime second.
Emergency room care still is available for all patients at the Landstuhl hospital.
The staff shortage occurred because many people move on to new assignments in the
summer. At least one more doctor will arrive in the fall, hospital officials said.
"This provider shortage will probably get better in October," said Col. John
Johnson, U.S. Army deputy commander for primary care. "We have one doctor coming back
then, and this will improve our service."
"This will make it harder for our civilian employees," said Myrna Wade,
Ramstein Air Base, Germany, section chief of civilian personnel flight employee-management
services. "This is definitely a decrease in medical service provided by Landstuhl
hospital."
"Even though there has been no policy change, in reality we are no longer
providing basic medical care for civilian pay patients," said a Landstuhl Regional
Medical Center official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Army Staff Sgt. Jose Lopez, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center emergency room
supervisor, checks Nedry Vega, an 86th Services Squadron lodging civilian employee at
Sembach Air Base. |
The reason stems from the appointment system, said Air Force Col. James Rundell, the
hospital’s clinical services deputy commander. "Availability for pay patients
[civilians] is dependent on several factors, including staffing levels and ongoing
military readiness missions."
Civilian government workers cannot make appointments for more than 30 days out, and the
appointment system is full for the next six weeks, Bannister said.
This means that civilian pay patients must find doctors outside the military hospital
in Landstuhl.
"During the past year, LRMC has been able to accommodate 15,600 pay patients’
space-available appointments," said Johnson. "Of those appointments, 13,500 were
in adults patients and 2,100 were in children and adolescents."
Having continuity of care is important for most employees, Wade said.
"The big issue is, their care will not be with the same physicians and their
records will not follow them," she said.
This change in medical care also has the potential to cost the hospital money.
| Need help? Patients who cannot obtain medical care at
the Landstuhl Regional Medical Hospital should contact the following local-area civilian
providers.
General practitioners:
Landstuhl: Dr. Udo
Scherer, Am Rathaus 3, 06371-3643; Dr. Klaus Klug, Koenigsberger Str. 1, 06371-3372; Dr.
Kurt Zeller, Danziger Str. 2, 06371-92330.
Ramstein: Dr.
Wolfgang Knieriemen, Kreuzhof 4, 06371-50402; Dr. Nikolaus Marburg, Markt Str. 32,
06371-598480.
Zweibruecken: Dr.
Dieter Cullman, Schlossplatz 3, 06332-77088; Dr. Rudi Wagner, Bitscher Str. 66,
06332-73000.
Obstetrics and gynecology:
Landstuhl: Dr.
Alireza Rassouli (male), Kaiser Str. 40, 06371-2591; Dr. Gertrud Erler, Zur Melkerei 55,
06371-914444.
Internal medicine:
Ramstein: Dr.
Peter Koenig, Miesenbacher Str. 7, 06371-70611.
Kindsbach: Dr.
Josef Hehn, Hoernchen Str. 27, 06371-2426.
For a list of Tricare Europe
preferred providers call the Ramstein Tricare Service Center at 06371-462616,
Landstuhl’s service center at 06371-866375 or go to the web site at: www.europe.tricare.osd.mil. |
"From May 2000 to May 2001, civilian pay patients spent $232,206 for medical care
at the family practice clinic," said Marie Shaw, the hospital’s spokeswoman.
When the numbers for specialty care and emergency room care are figured in, it’s
more than $1 million, Rundell said.
The amount of money taken in by the hospital can vary, Rundell said. "The most
recent data indicated at the LRMC is that taking care of pay patients is basically a
break-even affair," he said. "The most optimistic figures I have seen is that we
make a 15 percent profit."
This calculates to $34,830 in annual profit from family practice alone.
But it’s really not about money, it’s about a promise, said Paula Patrick, a
civilian government employee on Ramstein Air Base.
"It doesn’t surprise me," she said of civilians having their medical
services temporarily dropped by the military hospital. "Civilians come over here and
think medical care is going to be available, but that isn’t the case. We usually
can’t be seen — medical care is just not available for us."
"We are concerned with their fears," Rundell said of civilian patients.
"We have patient liaisons who help people being seen on the local economy. We
translate documents. We know continuity is never optimum when seeing [patients] on a
space-available basis, but we try."
Even though summer rotation "underlaps" are not new to the military,
Europe’s two other main regional hospitals, Heidelberg Army Hospital and Würzburg
Army Hospital, both in Germany, are not having any problems, officials with those
facilities said.
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