Edwards announces new web page for 412th MDG, medical services

  • Published
  • By Jet Fabara
  • 412th Test Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  In an attempt to connect Team Edwards and their families to the health care services provided here, the base has created a new Web page and central location for those inquiring about the base's medical services and locations.

The new Web page, located at www.edwards.af.mil/units/412thmedicalgroup/index.asp, officially went live Sept. 19 and can be quickly accessed via the Edwards Air Force Base home page under the health care services tab.

"To help improve the experience of care we provide Airmen and their families, all Military Treatment Facilities were asked to participate in an effort to standardize MTF Web page content," said Jonathan Stock, Chief of Public Affairs at the Office of the Air Force Surgeon General. "By standardizing our online health information, the Air Force Medical Service can better provide seamless health service support to the U.S. Air Force and combatant commanders."

According to Stock, the initiative began with the AFMS Web Standardization Project Team who was tasked to analyze the content currently featured on MTF pages and work with personnel at each MTF to improve the level of service the pages delivered.

"Originally, we saw an inconsistency between MTF pages making it unnecessarily challenging for Airmen and families transitioning between bases to find information about their new health care teams," said Stock. "We actually found that more than 50 percent of bases did not even have medical clinic locations or hours even on their sites. This knowledge led us to develop the MTF Web Standardization toolkit, which we distributed to all major commands, including 75 MTFs."

Prior to the toolkits being distributed, Stock said the team had to develop a checklist and page template with a list of "Basic" content elements that Airmen and their families would expect to see on their MTF Web pages.

The list of "Basic" content elements on any given AFMS standardized web page includes:
  • Location information
  • Contact information
  • Appointments and Benefits information
  • MiCARE, secure messaging
  • Clinics
  • Hours of Operation
  • Pharmacy information
  • Ancillary services
  • Urgent Care information
  • About the MTF
  • Announcements
  • Featured links
  • Social Media links
  • Mobile Apps
  • Notice of Privacy
"Once the checklist was complete, the team held several focus groups with Public Affairs Officers and AFMS Web page content contributors - and piloted the checklist with six MTFs - to confirm the checklist served the needs of the patient audience, which included a series of focus groups consisting of Health Care providers, Airmen, their families and beneficiaries," added Stock.

In April 2012, the AFMS officially launched the initiative to the entire Air Force community with hopes to update all sites by April 2013.

"This initiative was a cross-collaboration of both MTF representatives and PA assets and both the Air Force Surgeon General and Public Affairs leadership supported the endeavor," Stock said. "Our goal is to get all 75 MTFs to the "Basic" level in one year and to begin piloting more advanced sites in the meantime. We hope to create more interesting and engaging sites with our key audiences and beneficiaries in the years to come."