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HOSPITAL AT FORT LEWIS SAID TO HAVE WALTER
REED-TYPE PROBLEMS -- Operation Homefront
says Madigan Army Medical Center has
problems that need to be addressed.
Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort
Lewis, Washington
Story here...
http://www.komotv.com/news/6331282.html
Story below:
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Hospital at Fort Lewis said to have Walter
Reed-type problems
By Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) - Madigan Army Medical Center at
Fort Lewis has problems similar to some of those at Walter Reed Army
Medical Center in Washington, D.C., leaders of the activist group
Operation Homefront say.
Room conditions, caseworker layoffs and delays for injured soldiers
moving from military care to the Department of Veterans Affairs were
among the complaints raised by Meredith Leyva, founder of the group and
wife of an active duty Navy officer, in an interview Monday with the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Officials at Fort Lewis, a sprawling post south of Tacoma, referred the
newspaper's questions to Madigan, and hospital officials did not return
calls from the newspaper Monday.
However, a reporter and photographer from The News Tribune of Tacoma
toured medical facilities at Fort Lewis last week, including a World War
II-era brick building that's long been scheduled for a major renovation
and a cluster of modular buildings that resemble portable school
classrooms.
Despite the age of the structures, the paper found the soldiers there to
be clean, comfortable and warm. Soldiers and officials said the problems
reported at Walter Reed do not exist at Fort Lewis, where housing and
treatment for wounded and injured soldiers are major priorities.
"This is a full-time ongoing mission that we deal with daily, not
something we put focus on just because of a story," Command Sgt. Maj.
Daniel Willey, the top enlisted soldier at the Fort Lewis Army garrison,
told the News Tribune. Willey's responsibilities include the welfare of
wounded troops.
Recovering soldiers provided for The News Tribune to interview said they
were comfortable and happy with the help they get to navigate the Army
medical bureaucracy. "I've got my living space, my own room, nice
amenities. It's not bad," said Sgt. Steven Marfill, 28, recovering from
massive injuries he suffered in a December 2005 bombing near Abu Ghraib.
"It's nice and quiet. Not bad at all."
Leyva's comments followed congressional hearings Monday on Walter Reed
and removal of a general and the secretary of the Army by Defense
Secretary Robert Gates.
Operation Homefront, which does volunteer work daily at Madigan and
provided emergency aid to 1,600 wounded troops nationwide last year, has
no qualms with the medical care or professionals at Madigan, she said.
"The health care at Madigan is phenomenal, the best in its class," Leyva
said. "It's the casework we are concerned about."
The group had found problems "at every military medical facility in the
country" were being worsened by long delays and drastic change in the
caseworker program, including the layoff of two caseworkers at Madigan,
she said.
Operation Homefront volunteers also reported rooms with asbestos and
lead that is only now being removed, but it was not clear Monday whether
those rooms were in the main operation, which is less than 15 years old,
or an older area which is only partly in use.
In 1999 the main building was scored a perfect 100 by the Joint
Commission on Accreditation of Health Care, according to Army
information.
An average of a year and a half for disability claims to be processed
before injured military personnel are discharged for civilian treatment
by the VA is too long, especially under a Defense Department directive
setting the maximum acceptable stay at 120 days, Leyva said.
"That means service members, many with post-traumatic stress disorder or
traumatic brain injuries, are on hold for 18 months where they can't pay
the bills," she said.
Lacking sufficient caseworkers to help with the process, injured
soldiers often settle for lower disability ratings, which mean lower
disability payments, to escape from treatment limbo, she said.
"We are still livid about that," said Janice Buckley, Washington state
chapter president of Operation Homefront.
"In some situations of PTSD or traumatic brain injuries, you can't just
give the soldiers a list" of places to go and needs to be filled,
Buckley said. "You have to hand-carry it for them."
Skip Dreps, government liaison for the Northwest Chapter of Paralyzed
Veterans of America, said his last count showed 62 active-duty and 179
National Guard or Reserve soldiers in medical hold at Madigan, including
two who had been waiting 17 months and 10 months, respectively.
Active-duty wounded soldiers are sent to the spinal cord injury clinic
at the VA Puget Sound Medical Center in Seattle and their average stay
has been about nine months, Dreps said.
"When you compile (the case) for a spinal cord injury, the book is
pretty well written," he said.
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Larry Scott --
