Army outpatient complaints heard

WASHINGTON – The commander of the Army’s leading medical facility acknowledges problems in outpatient treatment but said the hospital is working to address the concerns of patients and their families.

Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, commanding general of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, said Friday that he knows some soldiers have complaints about the way their cases have been handled.

Weightman spoke in advance of an article in today’s editions of the Washington Post detailing some of those issues.

Some soldiers and their families have complained that it takes too long to get through an evaluation to determine whether the soldier will be returned to duty or be retired for medical reasons. That process begins once the soldier becomes an outpatient.

According to Army standards, that evaluation process is supposed to be done in 140 days. At Walter Reed the process has taken an average of 209 days, Weightman said. Part of the reason, he said, is that Walter Reed receives the most complex cases of war wounded, including soldiers with brain trauma and post-traumatic stress syndrome, which makes it harder to gauge recovery progress and prospects.

“The family members get a little frustrated because, I mean, we’re really disrupting their lives … and their lives are on hold until we can get their son, their daughter, their husband back up to speed, so they’re a little bit impatient sometimes,” Weightman said.

Also some soldiers have complained that once they are no longer inpatients, they feel as though they are being rushed through the system toward a discharge from the service, he said.

“From our internal reviews of these perceptions, we have been modifying our policies and procedures as necessary to address these concerns,” he said.

The Post described “a frustrating mountain of paperwork,” with the typical outpatient “required to file 22 documents with eight different commands.”

Within the last year, Weightman said, Walter Reed has increased from four to 17 the number of staff who act as liaisons between outpatients and the patient disability evaluation system in an effort to improve the flow of information to the soldiers and their families.

The disability evaluation system also is being given more legal support so cases can be processed more quickly, he said.