How Deployments Affect the Capacity and Utilization of Army Treatment Facilities

The Army was concerned about how the Army Force Generation (ARFORGEN) cycle, established to provide a predictable process by which Army units deploy, reset, and train to become ready and available to deploy again, affected the lives of Army soldiers and their families. In particular, the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army asked RAND Arroyo Center to determine whether ARFORGEN resulted in ebbs and flows in the ability of Army military treatment facilities (MTFs) to provide medical care and respond to changes in family needs as soldiers and care providers deploy and return home. This concern is especially well-founded because military health research has shown that family members of service members utilize health care differently during deployment than when the soldier is at home. This study found that MTF capacity is not greatly affected when soldiers and care providers deploy, and that MTFs may be slightly less busy than when soldiers and care providers are both at home. In aggregate, family member access to health care does not appear to be impinged when soldiers deploy, and soldiers who did not deploy with their unit slightly increase their utilization of health care during those times.