Iraq War may be breaking Army hospitals in the U.S.

I don't have the time or energy to blog extensively about this right now, but this is significant, particularly in the aftermath of the situation at Walter Reed Hospital.

The quality of care in Army hospitals around the country -- including those at Fort Riley in Kansas and Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri -- is suffering because doctors are being deployed to Iraq. The hospitals' struggles in the face of staff shortages impacts returning wounded soldiers and military families.

A Kansas TV station reports that the hospital at Fort Riley has failed to meet standards of care for three years now. USA Today reports the national story.

There is nothing surprising about this. Lack of planning and lack of foresight are the hallmarks of the Bush Administration.

Once again, there is nothing surprising, but it is enormously tragic. Once again, the Bushies show how they "support" the troops.

There's more: "Iraq War may be breaking Army hospitals in the U.S." >>

Unconscionable

This ABC news piece by Bob Woodruff is why the GAO needs to act swiftly on the request by the bipartisan Senate group that has asked for an in-depth evaluation of the mental health services our returning troops are not getting.

[Outrage Alert Warning: Red]

There's more: "Unconscionable" >>

KILEY FIRED

General Kylie needs to be removed from his duties as surgeon general of the Army, because it's that culture of command. And by the way, General Kylie, I documented in the Armed Services hearing this week, he knew of these problems. He's known of them for several years, and he was in the position to do something about it, and he needs to change--he needs to go. We need a new commander over the medical command of the US Army, and a
new culture of command. --Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) 3/11/2007 , Face the Nation

Lt. General Kevin Kiley was asked for his resignation today. His desk is cleaned out and the locks have probably already been changed.

He is the third flag-rank casualty in the wake of the the scandal unleashed by reporters from The Washington Post.

He is also the most deserving of the sacking.

The decay of the facilities and the denigrating treatment of the troops happened on his watch, when he was the commander of Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He has known about the conditions, and about the personnel issues. He was in the position to do something, and he did nothing.

I shed no tears for the demise of his career, and only wish his pension could be impacted for his display of perfidy.

There's more: "KILEY FIRED" >>

Meet Anne McLeod

Walter Reed is a mess. But everyone is focusing on the wrong mess.

Mold and mildew can be cleaned up. Stained carpets can be replaced. Walls can be painted and structures can be repaired.

But abuse and neglect...That is not so easy to whitewash.

The crass and craven perfidy is staggering in it's scope. Last week, I was very close to flabbergasted when I heard Secretary Harvey state that he hoped the Washington Post was satisfied, having managed to "ruin some careers." (A few decades of being affiliated with the military has made me not so easy to knock over with a feather when I hear of an outrage, if you know what I mean.)

I wanted to go through the radio and do an injury to the feckless coward.

But today, someone else (without my penchant for rhetorically dousing offenders with gasoline and tossing a match on 'em then busting out the s'mores fixin's) delivered a body blow to Harvey that should have knocked the wind out of all the upper brass. Sometimes a defter touch is demanded. Anne McLeod, wife of an injured Iraq War National Guard Soldier had the right tone, timbre and inflection.

The thing of the matter is, Mr. Harvey made a statement the other day that really bothers me. He said he hopes the Washington Post was satisfied because they ruined careers. First, let me come on record by saying, I don’t care about your career as far as anybody that’s in danger. That doesn’t bother me. All I’m just trying to do is have my life, the life that I had and that I know. My life was ripped apart the day my husband was injured, and having to live through the mess that we lived through at Walter Reed has been worse than anything I have ever sacrificed in my life.

Go to Think Progress to watch video of her testimony.

I dare you to watch it and not tear up, even if you have never had any connection to the military.

This is a topic that is not going away. So let's take a page out of the right's playbook, as written by Frank Luntz. When this subject comes up, use these words in framing the debate:

• Abuse
• Neglect
• Suffering
• Cruel
• Heartbreaking
• Disgraceful
• Depraved indifference
• Families
• Inhuman treatment
• Perfidy
  

Those words focus the debate where it belongs:

On beings, not buildings.

There's more: "Meet Anne McLeod" >>

Harvey didn't jump; he was pushed

The Air Force Times is reporting that Army Secretary Francis Harvey's resignation was requested before it was offered. In fact, Harvey was at Ft. Benning in Georgia and was summoned back to the Pentagon to meet with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Friday afternoon, in time for his exit to make the evening news.

After the meeting with Harvey, Gates issued the following statement:

Gates was unhappy with the Army’s response to revelations, reported by Army Times and The Washington Post, that wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington were consigned to squalid quarters and mired in administrative red tape while awaiting care and evaluation for benefits.

“I am disappointed that some in the Army have not adequately appreciated the seriousness of the situation pertaining to outpatient care at Walter Reed,” Gates said in the Pentagon briefing room.

“Some have shown too much defensiveness and have not shown enough focus on digging into and addressing the problems,” Gates said.

“Also, I am concerned that some do not properly understand the need to communicate to the wounded and their families that we have no higher priority than their care, and that addressing their concerns about the quality of their outpatient experience is critically important.

“Our wounded soldiers and their families have sacrificed much and they deserve the best we can offer.”

Secretary Gates took no questions from reporters, but if he had, certainly the press corps would have clamored to know if Kiley is next.

None the less, my Magic 8-Ball says Kiley will be gone by the evening news Wednesday - at the latest. (And if I'm wrong, which I'm not, well I'm due to miss. I've been on a roll lately with the predictions...)

There's more: "Harvey didn't jump; he was pushed" >>

BREAKING: More 'Medical Hold' fallout

The day after the firing of General George Weightman, the Commander at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey resigned. Harvey, a Bush political appointee, is the latest casualty in the ongoing 'Medical Hold' scandal.

Harvey's resignation was announced by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who took the opportunity to chastise some of the more recalcitrant members of the medical officer corps. Gates said he was "disappointed that some in the Army have not adequately appreciated the seriousness of the situation pertaining to outpatient care at Walter Reed."

This story is not going anywhere any time soon. The outrage is pervasive and the cravenness of the administration that oversaw this fiasco is palpable.

The masterminds who conceived of and oversaw the disaster that is the Bush administration need to check their watches. The time for accountability is now.

There's more: "BREAKING: More 'Medical Hold' fallout" >>

Crack the Whip, Claire!

Missouri’s junior senator, Clair McCaskill (who I worked tirelessly to elect) is emerging at the forefront of the Medical Hold scandal. After careful and considerable deliberation, McCaskill issued a statement yesterday calling for the firing of Army Surgeon General Kevin Kiley. McCaskills remarks came in the wake of Maj. Gen. George Weightman, Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s commander, being relieved of his command earlier in the day.

“It’s clear that General Kiley, the surgeon general at the Army, knew about the conditions at Building 18,” McCaskill said. “The irony of this situation is General [George] Weightman stepped up. He’s only been there a year.” McCaskill said in calling for the resignation or firing of General Kiley.

Kiley is the former commander of Walter Reed, and the Washington Post reported Thursday that he was informed of the problems in 2003 that, unpalliated, have emerged as a scandal in 2007. Yet Weightman is relieved of command, and Kiley is back in charge.

“I Felt Sick”

“This is about a system that is not trying to make it easy for the wounded to get what they deserve,” McCaskill said during a news conference Thursday with Obama after introducing their bill.

[Snip past the commentary about Obama’s rock-star status]

How did McCaskill, still waiting to move into a permanent office on the Hill, seize the reins on such a highly charged issue with such a high-megawatt candidate for the White House?

Upon reading the Sunday newspaper reports, “I felt sick,” McCaskill said.

“Somewhere along the line, someone saw this and said to themselves, ‘We’re not supposed to complain.’ Any fresh set of eyes looking at rotting ceilings and peeling mold, and realizing our battle-weary men and women are being forced into those circumstances would say, ‘Whoa. This is wrong.’ Somebody ought to have pounded the table somewhere.”

She directed her staff to collect information about the problems and how she could help fix them.

In the Senate hierarchy, McCaskill knows her place — fourth from the bottom in seniority. She figured more senior colleagues would quickly wade into the controversy. The outrage level was blinking red, after all. Still, there was no harm in being prepared.

At the time she directed her “staff” to get on it, that staff still consisted of one overworked legislative assistant – but she has since added more, including an infantry Captain who was part of the Iraqi invasion to advise her on military affairs. One of his first acts was to go tour Walter Reed.

Earlier this week, McCaskill and her top aides gathered in her small, temporary office to prep her for her own tour Wednesday. A key question to the hospital brass would be: In light of the problems, where is the accountability going to be in the senior chain of command?

McCaskill was already cynical: “It’s going to be like the prison,” she told them, referring to the scandal over Abu Ghraib, a U.S. military prison in Baghdad. “The guys at the bottom will be held accountable and the guys at the top will not.”

Stepping up

After her tour, she said most of the top officials she met recognized how steep a climb they face to restore trust. But some “seemed very closed-minded and defensive,” she said. “One bragged this process has to be dispassionate, which seems to me to be oxymoronic.”

Her bill with Obama has begun to draw bipartisan support, including the backing of Missouri Sen. Kit Bond, a Republican. Hearings on the problems will start next week.

“Introducing legislation is not anything exceptional,” said Ross K. Baker, an expert on the Senate at Rutgers University. “What is exceptional is if it eventually improves the conditions at Walter Reed. She would be in a charmed circle. Very few freshmen are able to author a major piece of legislation.”

Keep it up, Claire. You occupy the seat once held by Harry S Truman. It is your legacy as the occupant of that seat to hold feet to the fire, blisters be damned.

McClatchy recaps the scandal highlights for your convenience

Problems at Walter Reed

The problems at Walter Reed pertain not to the quality of medical treatment for wounded soldiers but rather to the care for those who are well enough to be outpatients:

•Seriously wounded soldiers outnumber hospital staff 17 to 1. As a result, recovering soldiers, some with psychological issues, are asked to oversee other patients.

•Case managers for the wounded are overwhelmed and sometimes untrained.

•Building 18, a decrepit former hotel housing 80 recovering soldiers, had mold on the walls, secondhand furniture, soiled carpets, rodents and cockroaches.

•Bureaucratic delays stem from Army computer systems that do not interact, leaving the typical soldier to file 22 different documents with eight Army commands.

•Disoriented patients and their relatives get little help dealing with the 113-acre campus or the confusing paperwork.

There's more: "Crack the Whip, Claire!" >>

Assault on Dignity

Just when I think I have reached the limits of my disgust and anger at the Walter Reed Medical Hold scandal, another outrage comes to light, and new heights are achieved.

I have avoided this topic because it just offends me on so many levels. It offends me as a healthcare professional. It offends me as the daughter, sister and wife of a Sailor, a Soldier and an Airman, respectively. It offends me as an American Citizen, ostensibly served by the sacrifices of our military. It offends me as a human being.

Honestly, I don’t believe I am in possession of a single, solitary unoffended sensibility.

The level of disgust and outrage I feel is not compatible with a reasoned discussion of the topic, and this topic is too important to me to alienate anyone with an invective-laden tirade that questions the parentage of various command level medical officers and elected officials.

Retaliation

How dare those soldiers in Building 18 talk to the press and allow the public to become aware of the conditions troops in medical hold have had to deal with and the indignities they have suffered.

The troops in medical hold have been told they will now roll out at 0600, and have their quarters ready for inspection by 0700.

These are combat veterans who have paid a heavy price with a precious coin, at the behest of their government, and they are being treated like they are back in basic training. It is outrageous. It is maddening. It is unconscionable.

And no matter how the pentagon tries to spin it from the lower levels while Gates expresses his outrage, this is a retaliatory move, and the interests of the troops are not being served.

I am curious about something and have been since the story broke. Suddenly elected officials were demanding accountability, and medical officers falling all over themselves to accept responsibility.

Well, Duh. Command knew what the deal was. Command always knows and don’t believe otherwise. Those soldiers weren’t sequestered to Bedlam, unsupervised, disintegrating to a Lord of the Flies scenario, existing entirely in a vacuum.

My first thought was to wonder where the hell they have been for the last four years?

Are they admitting that all those trips out to Walter Reed with news crews in tow were just 15-minute photo-ops; benefiting only the politicians by having pictures snapped while they look admiringly at a plucky amputee who just wants to get back to his unit?

Are they admitting, ipso facto, that those soldiers cease to matter as soon as the lens-caps go back on and the mics go dead, and their utility to the politician has been expended?

I think we should trawl the nets and find those pictures...and hang them around the necks of the media whores who send our young men and women off to fight and die in unjust and unjustified wars – the media whores who are deeply concerned for 15 minutes while the cameras roll – the media whores who allowed troops who did their duty live in squalor as they struggle to recover from war wounds.

Failing to step up and do what’s right, neglecting ones responsibilities – these are the kinds of things that prompt me to press a hot iron into your flesh to burn the word feckless into your person

There's more: "Assault on Dignity" >>