Community Health & Wellness

Navy hospital in Bremerton transfers patients to civilian health system

After going three months with only one physician assigned to its Internal Medicine Clinic, Naval Hospital Bremerton has announced plans to transfer hundreds of its patients into the civilian health system.

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Hospital spokesperson Doug Stutz confirmed in an email last week that nearly 700 patients on TRICARE For Life — a health insurance plan for retired military personnel that supplements Medicare — are being reestablished with a civilian provider. Patients can still access NHB for pharmaceutical, urgent care and some other needs.

Clinic patients were informed of the change during a town hall event last month, according to a news release. Retirements and permanent change-of-duty orders left the clinic with one physician for 2,200 patients since late November, Stutz said.

“Those numbers just don’t add up,” Capt. Molly Jenkins, the hospital’s executive officer, said during the town hall, according to the release.

The development marks the latest in a series of cutbacks at NHB, since converting its emergency room into an urgent care over a decade ago. It will likely exacerbate existing capacity challenges in the region’s civilian health system.

“We have seen closures of inpatient, emergency, critical care, and most recently obstetrical services,” Dr. Gib Morrow, Kitsap’s top health official, said of NHB at a board meeting last year. “That’s occurred even though the private-sector health system in Kitsap has been increasingly over stressed and underserved.”

Stutz said the clinic will continue with one provider for the next several months as hospital works to hire civilian providers.

Jenkins said the hospital would work within the Military health System and Defense Health Network to fill those vacant positions, but stressed that there was shortage of primary care providers across the country. Kitsap County had about half as many primary care doctors per capita as the state at large in 2023, according to Washington Health Care Research Center

“We did not make this decision lightly and have been studying this issue for months,” Jenkins said. “We have subject matter experts here from our Healthcare Business Office, Internal Medicine Clinic, Family Medicine and more to assist in any way we can to help you in this transition.”