Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
November 1, 2007
Pg. 6
The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs signed an agreement yesterday to provide "federal recovery coordinators" to shepherd seriously wounded service members and veterans through their long-term rehabilitation, the Pentagon said yesterday.
The agreement follows a key recommendation made this summer by the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors, co-chaired by former senator Robert J. Dole and former health and human services secretary Donna E. Shalala.
President Bush appointed the panel in response to reports that many service members injured in Iraq and Afghanistan have been mired in military medical bureaucracy.
"This agreement will help ensure our nation's wounded warriors and their families receive the care they need and deserve at the right time, right place, and by the right person across the continuum from recovery through to their reintegration into their communities," Michael L. Dominguez, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in a statement.
The first 10 coordinators, who are to be provided by VA and trained by January, will be assigned to major military health-care facilities, including Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, according to the statement.
A report from the Government Accountability Office last month questioned whether VA had the resources to support such a program.
--Steve Vogel
November 1, 2007
Pg. 6
The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs signed an agreement yesterday to provide "federal recovery coordinators" to shepherd seriously wounded service members and veterans through their long-term rehabilitation, the Pentagon said yesterday.
The agreement follows a key recommendation made this summer by the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors, co-chaired by former senator Robert J. Dole and former health and human services secretary Donna E. Shalala.
President Bush appointed the panel in response to reports that many service members injured in Iraq and Afghanistan have been mired in military medical bureaucracy.
"This agreement will help ensure our nation's wounded warriors and their families receive the care they need and deserve at the right time, right place, and by the right person across the continuum from recovery through to their reintegration into their communities," Michael L. Dominguez, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in a statement.
The first 10 coordinators, who are to be provided by VA and trained by January, will be assigned to major military health-care facilities, including Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, according to the statement.
A report from the Government Accountability Office last month questioned whether VA had the resources to support such a program.
--Steve Vogel