RP, what's your experience been with military medicine? Mostly positive? Negative? How can it improve?

Thankfully I've only had the experience with Military medicine in Vietnam all I can say now and forever is God bless the medics!

On my first ship the Chief Corpsman assumed that everyone was a malingerer - have an APC or a shot of penicillin was the mainstay of his clinical skills. Apart from that, I had very good experiences at every subsequent duty station. Best of all, unlike the VA, wait times were minimal.

At the VA my best caregiver was a Physician's Assistant fresh from duty in the Middle East - more caring and up-to-date than most the MD's I dealt with there.

You can always do a follow up with them, the great thing about alhta is it has the patients phone number. Whenever I treat a patient I just try to do whatever I'd want my medic to do if I was the patient

Mostly positive, I wish all Americans had access to a health care system this good.

Never have to wait a long time for an appointment, doctors usually listen to what your saying and if they don't it's not hard to find a second opinion. I can get medications for free, sometimes I might have to wait for an hour or so... however I don't think that's unreasonable. Staff are usually more professional and thoughtful that nearby civilian hospitals... I could keep going. If I had to choose between losing half my retirement check or losing Tricare and military medicine. I would ditch half my retirement.

On base medical was always pretty good. I did have a problem with one health issue where all base doctors kept throwing Motrin at me. No one ever bothered to deal with the issue beyond that until a base doctor sent me to a local civilian doc who put me on meds that actually helped.

Medical hospital at Bremerton WA did some major dental surgery for me and did a great job. Was very happy with their care. When I left the service and came home, I had an issue and called them for help. Got through to the doctor with no issues and he talked me through it.

As a dependent, I was under base care on GITMO. Only one obstetrician in the middle of a base baby boom. She was tops. Can't say enough about her personal care before and handling of my emergency C section.

In a military setting you can do more than in a civilian setting so get the experience and learn as much as you can.

Like everything it depends. When an E-1 at A School I sat for a long time at GLAKES hospital waiting. Don't know how long as I passed out with 102 temp and woke up in a chill bath. So they didn't believe me when I said my lungs were filling and I had a temp. As an O-1 I had a small(?) stroke. That got people's attention and off to Long Beach I went. Recovered quickly and the care was good. Had two surgeries out on Adak but since I knew everyone, I just had to promise beers. I won't go into the fun the staff had with me when I was the Staff Civil Engineer for NRMC CAMPEN and needed a barium enema.

The big difference in care gap in the '90s was Ortho. MIL medicine was 15-20 years behind the curve. I wound up having my ACL done by the Seahawks Ortho as luckily they emptied out the Bremerton hospital for DS-1. From what I can tell, that gap has closed considerably since.

My best experience with military medicine was when I got approval for Tricare Prime Remote.

If you're a clinic medic, a good way to receive feedback if to outright give them an ICE card. I don't feel there is anything wrong with the practice. But I also agree that calling them back later on works well too. Wonder how many people, especially medics, so this.

I was turned away from the base medical clinic when I told them I knew something was wrong with my arm. They refused to do anything besides give my arm a squeeze and take my blood pressure telling me it was a torn muscle. A week later when I couldn't take it anymore my leadership demanded an X-Ray be taken, only to find out my arm had been fractured this entire time.

But this was a one time isolated bad experience. Hopefully the only one I'll have.