Naval Hospital Bremerton

Diabetes Self Management Classes are interactive problem solving opportunities Classes are held on consecutive Thursdays. For a refresher, drop in to any session.

Yoga Classes for EveryBODY. Practice time honored breathing, stretching, balancing and strength movements in a relaxing environ-ment.

Wellness Wednesdays include Meditation and Relaxation from 11:00 to 11:30, Tai Chi from 11:30 to 12:00 and Massage Therapy (by appointment).

Family Support includes Baby Basics Workshops for expectant parents and Car Seat Fittings.

A Message to Our Patients About Deployments of Medical Personnel
The tragic earthquake that struck Haiti has the Navy supporting relief efforts in that country.  Naval Hospital Bremerton, as part of the relief effort, is sending staff members in support of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (to include doctors, nurses, hospital corpsmen and support staff).

Naval Hospital Bremerton is inherently flexible and capable of meeting the call to support multiple missions.  We maintain a contingency plan to deal with these unexpected deployments, in addition to our regular deployments to other areas of the world.  We are capable of supporting this humanitarian crisis and our other deployments while continuing to provide quality healthcare to our beneficiaries here at home. 

We’re working to lessen any potential impact on our services while we support the disaster response operations in support of Haitian operations.  We fully anticipate being able to continue the current level of care and services for all our patients.  Steps being taken to reduce the impact on patients include: augmenting current staff with Navy reservists, other uniformed service staff members and new hires; authorizing staff overtime; and collaborating with our partners at TRIWEST and other civilian health care organizations. We foresee minimal long term impact on our ability to fully provide healthcare to beneficiaries.

What does this mean for you?
While our strategies to lessen the impact are implemented it may take a little longer to fill your prescription at the pharmacy, you may encounter a wait in some of our clinics, or in some areas you may experience longer waits for appointments.  Additionally, your doctor may have deployed, requiring rescheduling your appointment with another doctor here or a network provider in the community.  We are working proactively to address these issues.

What can you do to help?
We’d like to ensure that appointments for patients with acute and urgent care needs are immediately available so there may be an increase in wait time for some routine or wellness appointments until our staffing has stabilized with our reserve backfill, new hires, and new contracts with network providers.  You can help reduce these wait times by contacting us as soon as possible if you are unable to make your scheduled appointment (no-shows greatly decrease availability and impact others needing appointments).  Thank you for your understanding, your cooperation and your support of our deployed personnel and for helping us during this time of adjustment.

Bottom Line
We will continue meeting our patient care mission and graduate medical education requirements by providing safe, quality care for all our beneficiaries, while simultaneously supporting our wartime and humanitarian missions.

Naval Hospital Looking to Hire Additional Staff

Due to these deployments, Naval Hospital Bremerton is currently pursuing hiring a wide range of medical professionals in order to ensure that all of patient needs continue to be met.  If you know of anyone that may be interested, have them contact our Human Resources Department at 475-4347. 

 Family nights, pre-deployment fairs?  We have briefers available

Naval Hospital Bremerton has staff willing to speak to your command or family group -- about Health Promotion activities, the TRICARE program, or any other health related topic you wish to discuss.  Please contact Kendra Scroggs at 475-4408 if you are interested in having a hospital or TriWest rep speak to you.

TRICARE informational briefings

To increase awareness about the TRICARE program, Naval Hospital Bremerton is hosting “TRICARE Overview” briefings. These briefings are open to anyone interested in learning more about the TRICARE program. Briefings for 2010 will be held in Naval Hospital Bremerton’s Healthcare Support Building (Building 14) on Mar 3, May 5, Jul 7, Sep 1 and Nov 3.   All meetings are held at 11:00.  No reservation is required. For information, please call Kendra Scroggs at (360) 475-4408. 

 After hours access line available for urgent issues & advice

An after-hours access line is available to beneficiaries enrolled to Naval Hospital Bremerton (or one of our health clinics) with questions, concerns and/or wanting to contact a provider.  The access line is staffed 24 hours a day, however, during working hours patients are asked to call their clinic directly.  After working hours the access line will provide information or contact a provider to assist patients (if needed).  The purpose of this service is to allow direct access to providers for urgent issues or urgent advice.  It is not designed for routine matters such as medication refills or laboratory result follow up.  The access line can be reached by calling: 360-475-5700 (for Bremerton, Bangor, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard) or 425-304-4060 (for Everett).

Bangor Health Clinic renovation on the horizon

Naval Branch Health Clinic Bangor will be undergoing a renovation/upgrade beginning in May/June 2010.  A plan has been developed to keep as many services as possible within the clinic during the renovation, however some services will be provided in temporary trailers at the Bangor site and a few services will be sent to Naval Hospital Bremerton or our PSNS Clinic.  We will keep you updated on which services will be relocated once the renovation date gets closer.

Naval Hospital Bremerton continues to support the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts by mobilizing doctors, nurses, hospital corpsmen and support staff for Operation Unified Response in Haiti. NHB leadership states that their deployment will not impact patient care at the command.

 “The bottom line is that we will continue to offer the same level of care and services for our patients,” explained Captain Mark E. Brouker, Naval Hospital Bremerton Commanding Officer.  “Although we expect to encounter some challenges, our team will rise to the occasion for our patients and our nation as it has done in the past. We will continue meeting our patient care mission and graduate medical education requirements, while supporting our wartime and humanitarian missions.”

 While the duration of these deployments is unknown, Vice Adm. Adam Robinson, Surgeon General of the Navy, anticipates at least a six-month deployment.

“Although we have key staff deploying, this is not unusual, other than the quick readiness needed for those supporting this mission,” said Brouker.

This is not the first time a sizable group has departed from NHB for a readiness mission overseas. As recently as the summer of 2008, NHB had 16 percent of active duty staff deployed. “After our Haiti team gets underway, NHB will be 14 percent deployed,” Brouker noted. “We're looking at a variety of strategies to help us continue to provide quality care to our patients, not the least of which is hiring additional staff.”

The tragic earthquake and subsequent aftershocks that have struck Haiti has U.S. Navy Medicine assets actively engaged in bringing much needed medical service and health care to the country.  Naval Hospital Bremerton is part of the overall relief effort, and could deploy approximately 57 staff members as part of  1,500 Navy medical and non-medical support personnel being sent from multiple Navy Medicine commands in support of relief efforts.

“We're proud of their service, just as we're proud of our deployed staff serving in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other areas of the world,” stated Captain Brouker.