equivocation

Back when I was at School equivocation was as bad as lying.
How times have changed.
This morning I read in the Leaf Chronicle about Med Hold at BACH and yesterday about BACH's eagerness to hear suggestions for change.

Sugestions for change need go no further that the Complaint Box at the Patient Representative's office. Or even the notes from past Town Hall meetings with patients in Medical Hold.

The majority of providers at BACH are WONDERFUL - I personally had great experiences with my providers.

The providers who accept roles as administrators become a problem. As an administrator priorities CAN shift from patient care to systematic MANAGEMENT - and all too often the two clash.

Case managers may not be overworked - but their loyalties are to the process before the patient and that is a major systematic problem that must change.

And while BACH will, only with threat of exposure, allow patients to seek treatment outside the walls of BACH, BACH providers are known to prevent follow-through of this outside care. BACH's non-specialized general practitioners often over-rule the recommendations for treatment made by Vanderbilt or other MEDCEN specialty-trained doctors.

Most disturbing has been BACH's management of complaints made by patients. The leadership's actions have made no changes to quality of care concerns brought by patients.

Instead of closing Open Investigations, BACH allows the providers in question to deploy. Deploying the problem only drags the investigation. Worse yet, if that provider is under investigation they are now exposing deployed soldiers to known and unnecessary risk.

But none of that is in the articles in the Leaf Chronicle. The BACH leadership carefully crafted their talking points to avoid more in-depth questioning.

After major lawsuits BACH built a new "Mother-Baby Unit." Spouses can sue for malpractice, service members can't.

So, applying the backward logic so prevalent in the Military, especially the Military Medical System, it would appear that all "questionable providers" see the most vulnerable and voiceless soldiers while all the reputable providers see the other patients.

Like I said, I had an awesome experience at the hospital. I was fortunate to not have an administrator operating on me.

Washington Post Article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/17/AR2007021701172.html

Here is the beginning:

Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility

By Dana Priest and Anne Hull

Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, February 18, 2007; Page A01

Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss. But the old lodge, just outside the gates of the hospital and five miles up the road from the White House, has housed hundreds of maimed soldiers recuperating from injuries suffered in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dependant vs. Active Duty Medical Care

Last week I went to see a doctor at the local army hospital. My wife is still in the army and I have the special privilege of being provided military "health care." (OK, I know sarcasm doesn't always read well -- army health care is an oxymoron, and is more a sentence than a privilege)
Anyway, I see this doctor, who I've never seen before, just to get refills for the medicines I take for back pain. The contracted, civilian doctor took time to ask me many questions about my back pain. I told him chiropractic treatment would relieve the pain for a day but the pain quickly returned. I'd had X-rays taken and knew I had some degeneration and bone spurs -- very common for any soldier, especially those who wear Kevlar helmets often, like I did. But my X-rays were a year old and this new doctor wanted to update my records and try to see if further degeneration had occurred. Having to physically life my wife out of bed for 3 years has aggravated my back pain significantly. This doctor referred me immediately for an MRI and physical therapy. He was quite surprised that I had not been recommended for these tests and treatments already.

I was very happy to have a PT referral and to have an MRI scheduled.

BUT NOW I'M PISSED!

Other active duty soldiers (including my wife) going through the MEB process at this same hospital are treated like shit at what has been named the "Deployment Health Clinic." Some soldiers, once an MEB starts, transfer to the Medical Hold Company. Med Hold is a good thing for the army because it helps personnel managers track soldier status and unit fighting strength more accurately.
At our hospital all soldiers assigned to Med Hold are also assigned to the Deployment Health Clinic (DHC). The DHC is in a sad state of affairs. My wife's treatment from providers at that clinic has been deplorable. But her story is, unfortunately, not unique.

I felt the red carpet was rolled out for me at my appointment. I received outstanding medical care from a professional staff. I did not discuss much of my military history, just some medical concerns, with this doctor, I would assume he treats every single patient he sees in the same manner he treated me: with respect and acknowledgement of my personal assessment of my prior treatments and future concerns.

So for now we continue to fight administrative battles inside the hospital regarding this piss-poor treatment of injured soldiers. Some of the most handicapped soldiers are assigned to Med Hold and DHC and they deserve much better than to be dismissed as weak-minded or just complaining.
But it's also time to turn up the intensity of complaints. The public needs to know how America's injured warriors are treated.

- Ragin' Ranger Out