'Post' Gets Results from Walter Reed Hospital Probe

BumbleBeeBoogie, yup. So should Bushie be in prison. "Army vet at Walter Reed: 'I want to leave this place' http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Army_Vet_at_Walter_Reed_I_0305.html

"Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy." - Henry Kissinger,

Re: BlueFlame


But hey, no one has asked what nice things kiley has done, maybe he smiled at his grandmother once and that would excuse everything.

President Bush has acted decisively to improve conditions at Walter Reed and has sacked those responsible for the situation.

Unfortuantely, whenever Bush acts decisively, people die. And then he awards failure with Medals of Freedom.



Lest we forget Iraq and Hurricane Katrina.

We're kidding ourselves if we believe if this is a new thing and limited to Walter Reed. Oliver Stone's movie, "Born on the Fourth of July" showed exactly the deplorable conditions at VA hospitals during the Vietnam War. Conservatives had nothing but scorn for the movie, and, apparantly, couldn't believe that sometime like that could occur to our troops.

With the Walter Reed scandal top heads are rolling unlike the Abu Graib scandal where only the lower ranks were punished. In the prison scandal, though, responsibility went all the way up to the Pentagon and probably even the White House, so investigations were limited to the lower ranks.

GOP Rep. reveals first hand knowledge of Walter Reed conditions, details Army patient's death Michael Roston
Published: Thursday March 8, 2007

The top Republican who previously chaired the committee that wrote Defense budget bills admitted yesterday that he was aware of many problems at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, but feared that more aggressive oversight would "give the Army a black eye."
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/GOP_Rep._reveals_disturbing_details_of_0307.html

You're simply choosing to ignore the fact that the administration acted very decisively on this matter, and sacked people of very high rank, because it doesn't fit your agenda.

A Fatal Dose
A rash of drug overdoses at a Veterans Administration hospital in California raises new questions about the quality of military health care.

Web Exclusive
By Jonathan Alter
Newsweek
Updated: 2:58 p.m. PT March 20, 2007
March 20, 2007 - The poor conditions uncovered at Walter Reed Army Hospital may be only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to sub-standard treatment of veterans. At the Veterans Administration hospital in West Los Angeles, hospital administrators confirmed to NEWSWEEK and NBC News last week that five veterans there died of overdoses of illegal and prescription drugs in less than three months this winter. After learning that family and friends of a dead Iraq War veteran were about to go public, VA administrators ordered major policy changes at the 660-bed hospital. link

Lawmakers demand that the Army improve soldiers' care
Lawmakers demand that the Army improve soldiers' care
By Les Blumenthal
McClatchy Newspapers
3/22/07

WASHINGTON - Wounded soldiers at the Madigan Army Medical Center in Washington state say the Army is trying to push them into the Veterans Affairs medical system; they're being denied medical treatments; and they face retaliation if they complain, Washington state lawmakers said in a letter to the Army secretary.

The letter to acting Army Secretary Pete Geren came after the lawmakers or their staff members visited Madigan 13 days ago and met privately with wounded soldiers and their families.

The lawmakers said the soldiers they met with felt "unanimously" that Army officials were trying to force them out of the Defense Department system and into the Department of Veterans Affairs system.

They also said the soldiers and their families thought that the Army's Medical Evaluation Board and Physical Evaluation Board processes are "too cumbersome and generally unresponsive" to their needs.

"Some soldiers had been in the disability assessment process for three years," said the letter, signed by Democratic Reps. Norm Dicks and Adam Smith, Republican Rep. Dave Reichert and Washington state's two Democratic senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.

In addition, the lawmakers said they were told that the Army does an inadequate job of diagnosing and treating mental health diseases such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and often dismisses PTSD as "anxiety."

Though the lawmakers said improvements were already being made, they were concerned that what they heard at Madigan and Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, could reflect similar problems throughout the Army medical system.

The lawmakers said they were told that:

-Necessary medical procedures and treatments were being denied.

-Case managers were primarily interested in protecting the Army's interests and not the soldiers' health.

-High turnover of doctors and medical staff led to "negative" medical care and interfered with the "consistent and efficient application" of Army disability standards.

-Soldiers face retribution, including loss of promotions, reductions in benefits and other "thinly-veiled threats," if they complain or help fellow soldiers.

The legislators also heard complaints that the medical staff and caseworkers were overworked, that the Medical Evaluation Board process doesn't provide time for adequate appeals and that the Army won't allow prior medical records and outside diagnoses to be considered when determining disability levels.

"The soldiers, guardsmen and reservists who serve and protect our nation deserve the best medical care we can deliver to them individually, the best support that we can give to their families and the best opportunity for them to have fulfilling and productive lives in the future," the strongly worded letter said. "Not only is this the right thing to do for the people who serve today, it is the right thing to do to sustain the highest quality military in the future."

Madigan officials said the problems are already being addressed, including by the appointment of a medical ombudsman for the Medical Holdover Unit, giving soldiers access to an inspector general representative and increasing the time soldiers are given to review their medical evaluation board results.

"Our goal at Fort Lewis and Madigan is to ensure every soldier receives quality health care," Sharon Ayala, a Madigan spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Dicks said Thursday that he hand-delivered the letter to Geren during a meeting of the congressional Army Caucus. Dicks said he also spoke with Defense Secretary Robert Gates about the situation at Madigan and problems throughout the Army's medical system.

"I told him not to wait for all these commissions that have been appointed," Dicks said. "I told him we can fix about 95 percent of what's wrong without their recommendations."

Two days after the soldiers met with the lawmakers, they met with the two top generals at Fort Lewis and Madigan, Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik and Brig. Gen. Sheila Baxter, respectively. Dicks said the meeting was an eye-opener for Dubik.

"He was mad," Dicks said. "I have great confidence in General Dubik."

Since that meeting, Dubik and Baxter have made a number of changes and asked the Pentagon for money and staff to initiate a pilot program that the rest of the Army could use.

But Dicks cautioned that some of the improvements that are needed at Madigan and elsewhere require Defense Department approval, and Congress may need to amend some laws.
----------------------------------------------------

For more information on veterans and military health issues, see McClatchy Newspapers' "Wounded Warriors" blog: http://washingtonbureau.typepad.com/veterans/

'Beyond Walter Reed' for Report on Vets' Mental Health Woes
'Wash Post' Goes 'Beyond Walter Reed' for Report on Vets' Mental Health Woes
By Dana Priest, Washington Post
By E&P Staff
Published: June 16, 2007

The Washington Post team of Dana Priest and Anne Hull, who broke the Walter Reed scandal sky high earlier this year, return for a front-page report on Sunday called "Beyond Walter Reed: The War Inside."

It looks at veterans' mental health woes, such as Post-Traumatic Shock Disorder (PTSD) and inadequate treatment they receive.

A few summary grafs are reprinted below. The rest of the lengthy piece, plus photos, video, background and archives, can be found at www.washingtonpost.com.

One of the bitter legacies of Vietnam was the inadequate treatment of troops when they came back. Tens of thousands endured psychological disorders in silence, and too many ended up homeless, alcoholic, drug-addicted, imprisoned or dead before the government acknowledged their conditions and in 1980 officially recognized PTSD as a medical diagnosis.

Yet nearly three decades later, the government still has not mastered the basics: how best to detect the disorder, the most effective ways to treat it, and the fairest means of compensating young men and women who served their country and returned unable to lead normal lives....

Between 1999 and 2004, VA disability pay for PTSD among veterans jumped 150 percent, to $4.2 billion.

By this spring, the number of vets from Afghanistan and Iraq who had sought help for post-traumatic stress would fill four Army divisions, some 45,000 in all.

They occupy every rank, uniform and corner of the country. People such as Army Lt. Sylvia Blackwood, who was admitted to a locked-down psychiatric ward in Washington after trying to hide her distress for a year and a half [story, A13]; and Army Pfc. Joshua Calloway, who spent eight months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and left barely changed from when he arrived from Iraq in handcuffs; and retired Marine Lance Cpl. Jim Roberts, who struggles to keep his sanity in suburban New York with the help of once-a-week therapy and a medicine cabinet full of prescription drugs; and the scores of Marines in California who were denied treatment for PTSD because the head psychiatrist on their base thought the diagnosis was overused.

They represent the first wave in what experts say is a coming deluge.

As many as one-quarter of all soldiers and Marines returning from Iraq are psychologically wounded, according to a recent American Psychological Association report. Twenty percent of the soldiers in Iraq screened positive for anxiety, depression and acute stress, an Army study found.

Walter Reed hospital: GAO Finds Not Enough Done
Months After 'Wash Post' Walter Reed Revelations -- and Official Promises -- GAO Finds Not Enough Done
By Hope Yen, The Associated Press
Published: September 26, 2007

Months after pledging to improve veterans care, the Bush administration has yet to find clear answers to some of the worst problems afflicting wounded warriors, such as delays in disability payments and providing personalized care, investigators say.

A report by the Government Accountability Office, released Wednesday, offers the first preliminary assessment of improvement efforts initiated by the Pentagon and Veterans Affairs Department after revelations in February of shoddy outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The report found that even though the Army has touted creation of more personalized medical care units so that wounded veterans don't slip through the cracks, nearly half -- or 46 percent -- of returning service members who were eligible did not get the service due to staffing shortages.

The report said after 10 years of review, the Pentagon and VA still remain far away from having a comprehensive system for sharing medical records as injured veterans move from facility to facility.

And despite months of review by no less than eight congressional committees, a presidential task force, a presidential commission and the Pentagon and VA itself, the government has no apparent solution for reducing severe delays of 177 days, on average, in providing disability payments.

"Many challenges remain, and critical questions remain unanswered," GAO investigators John H. Pendleton and Daniel Bertoni wrote in calling for urgent action. "Success will ultimately depend on sustained attention, systematic oversight by DoD and VA, and sufficient resources."

[Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America, said in a statement sent to E&P: "This GAO report reveals that President Bush and Congress have yet to improve care for our nation's wounded veterans. The problems of Walter Reed have not been fixed. Officials pledged to take action after the deplorable conditions at Walter Reed were uncovered in February, but it has been more than seven months and veterans continue to wait for adequate care. In many cases, it is a matter of life and death. Americans were outraged when they first saw the images from Walter Reed and it is infuriating that so little has changed. The response has been unacceptable and our nation's heroes and their families deserve better."]

Army spokesman Paul Boyce said Wednesday that officials were working diligently to provide "high-quality medical and mental health care for America's soldiers and veterans." The Army has said it hopes to have full staffing of its medical care units by January 2008. The VA has said it was hiring 1,100 new processors to reduce backlogs.

Responding to delays in sharing medical records, Patrick Dunne, VA's assistant secretary for policy and planning, said the VA and Pentagon had recently completed electronic sharing of veterans data involving allergies, outpatient medications, lab results and radiology. The two departments are using a contractor to study the feasibility and scope of sharing full inpatient records electronically, he said.

Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., chairman of the House Oversight subcommittee on national security, said he was troubled by the lingering problems. "Taking care of our wounded heroes is too important to not demand that we strive for the highest levels of care and respect," he said.

Following the disclosures of patient neglect at Walter Reed, three high-level Pentagon officials stepped down. The Army quickly pledged to improve care by hiring more mental health counselors and creating new "warrior transition units"-- comprising a doctor, nurse case manager and squad leader-- who could help coordinate care.

The VA, which operates separate facilities for 5.8 million veterans, also said it would boost efforts, with VA Secretary Jim Nicholson vowing to work to improve data-sharing of medical records and to reduce backlogs. Nicholson later announced in July he was resigning and will step down Oct. 1.

On separate fronts, Congress approved additional money for veterans care, while the presidential commission headed by former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala recommended changes that would increase benefits for family members, create a Web site for medical records and revamp the way disability pay is awarded.

On Wednesday, the GAO praised these initial steps. But it cautioned that long-standing problems were far from being resolved as the various groups negotiated their various proposals and as the Pentagon and VA faced challenges in hiring needed staff.

As of mid-September, 17 of the 32 warrior transition units had less than 50 percent of the critical staff in place. And in many cases, the Army had filled slots by borrowing staff from other positions, thus providing only a temporary solution as thousands of veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Regarding disability benefits, the GAO said the government was currently in limbo amid competing proposals to fix the disability ratings system. The Dole-Shalala commission, for example, urged that only the VA -- and not the Pentagon -- provide disability payments, while other proposals gave the Pentagon a limited role.

But in all the proposals, no consideration was given as to how the additional duties would affect the VA, which is straining to reduce backlogs for disability benefits, the report said. Nicholson in recent days has acknowledged that the VA was nowhere close to reducing monthslong delays and cited that as a top challenge for his successor.

"Delayed decisions, confusing policies and the perception that DoD and VA disability ratings result in inequitable outcomes have eroded the credibility of the system," the GAO investigators said. "It is imperative that DoD and VA take prompt steps to address fundamental system weaknesses."