For those of you who are or were treated at MTF's, what was the patient advocate set-up? I've been having issues with the standard of care at our MTF since we arrived here in March and have recently been contacting patient advocates. I find it very strange that they are located in the clinic that they are assigned. For example, my issue is with the family practice clinic and I have to either call the clinic or show up there to reach a patient advocate. I just feel that they should be located separate from the clinic (at another location within the hospital) or at least have a direct phone line. Please let me know what your experiences have been.
Re: Patient Advocates
I worked in a few different MTFs over the last 9 years. Each clinic in the MTF should have a patient advocate so they can try to resolve the matter at the lowest level. The next step is the hopsital patient advocate. There should be a primary and alternate person assigned to this position. This is the primary person's full-time job. The MTF commander sees all complaints at this level.