Sec. 744. Pilot program on display of wait times at urgent care clinics and pharmacies of military medical treatment facilities
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Beginning not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall carry out a pilot program for the display of wait times in urgent care clinics and pharmacies of military medical treatment facilities selected under subsection (b). The Secretary shall select not fewer than four military medical treatment facilities from each of the following categories to participate in the pilot program: Medical centers. Hospitals. Ambulatory care centers. Of the military medical treatment facilities selected under each category described in subparagraphs
(A)through
(C)of paragraph (1), not fewer than one shall be located outside of the continental United States. The Secretary may select Government-owned, contractor-operated facilities among those military medical treatment facilities selected under paragraph (1). With respect to each military medical treatment facility participating in the pilot program with an urgent care clinic, the Secretary shall place in a conspicuous location at the urgent care clinic an electronic sign that displays the current average wait time determined under paragraph
(2)for a patient to be seen by a qualified medical professional. In carrying out paragraph (1), every 30 minutes, the Secretary shall determine the average wait time to display under such paragraph by calculating, for the four-hour period preceding the calculation, the average length of time beginning at the time of the arrival of a patient at the urgent care clinic and ending at the time at which the patient is first seen by a qualified medical professional. With respect to each military medical treatment facility participating in the pilot program with a pharmacy, the Secretary shall place in a conspicuous location at the pharmacy an electronic sign that displays the current average wait time to receive a filled prescription for a pharmaceutical agent. In carrying out paragraph (1), every 30 minutes, the Secretary shall determine the average wait time to display under such paragraph by calculating, for the four-hour period preceding the calculation, the average length of time beginning at the time of submission by a patient of a prescription for a pharmaceutical agent and ending at the time at which the pharmacy dispenses the pharmaceutical agent to the patient. The Secretary shall carry out the pilot program for a period that is not more than two years. Not later than 90 days after the completion of the pilot program, the Secretary shall submit to the Committees on Armed Services of the House of Representatives and the Senate a report on the pilot program. The report under paragraph
(1)shall include— the costs for displaying the wait times under subsections
(c)and (d); any changes in patient satisfaction; any changes in patient behavior with respect to using urgent care and pharmacy services; any changes in pharmacy operations and productivity; a cost-benefit analysis of posting such wait times; and the feasibility of expanding the posting of wait times in emergency departments in military medical treatment facilities. In this section, the term qualified medical professional means a doctor of medicine, a doctor of osteopathy, a physician assistant, or an advanced registered nurse practitioner.