Salon (4/11): VA report found Walter Reed problems in 2004

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/04/11/kussman/

VA report found Walter Reed problems in 2004

A task force learned nearly three years ago that wounded vets were unhappy with the hospital. So why does Bush want to promote the task force co-chair?

By Mark Benjamin


April 11, 2007 | WASHINGTON -- Bush administration officials have claimed that they were unaware of problems with veterans' care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center until a flurry of media reports earlier this year brought the hospital's shortcomings to their attention. But Salon has obtained written proof -- prepared for a Department of Veterans Affairs task force -- that officials should have been aware of the situation as long ago as August 2004. President Bush, meanwhile, having promised to improve care at the hospital, has just announce plans to nominate the co-chair of that task force to run all of the VA's health services.

In August 2004, VA researchers conducted focus group interviews with Walter Reed patients and their families. The report based on those interviews, and obtained by Salon, says that the patients -- seriously wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan -- told the VA that they were "frustrated, confused, sometimes angry" about their experiences at the hospital. Documents provided to Salon show the focus group report was delivered to top VA officials in November 2004.

"I was in a wheelchair and they expected me to push myself all the way over to Building 11," says an anonymous soldier in the report. "One hand was in a bandage and one leg I couldn't use and they wanted me to push myself around the post ... It just became more of a hassle and my mom did it."

The report shows that top VA officials were involved in the focus group process back in 2004. Michael Kussman, then the acting deputy undersecretary for health, was co-chair of the VA's Seamless Transition Task Force, which produced the final report. The task force was supposed to make sure veterans had access to healthcare and got their benefits in a fair and timely fashion. Not only is Kussman still at the VA, but he is also in line to be promoted. On April 4, the White House announced that the president intends to nominate Kussman to be undersecretary for health at the VA.

In addition to being co-chair of the 2004 task force, Kussman was also the commander of Walter Reed in the late 1990s. Paul Sullivan, who until March 2006 was a project manager at the VA in charge of data on returning veterans, told Salon that Kussman's role troubles him. "Kussman knew in 2004 that Walter Reed was a disaster," fumed Sullivan, "and thousands and thousands of veterans have needlessly suffered long delays."

Sullivan questioned why the military and the VA apparently did not address these problems two and a half years ago. "The VA had clear and unambiguous warning that Walter Reed was a fiasco in 2004," Sullivan said. "There is no way they can say they did not know ... The question is, did they share this with the Department of Defense in 2004?"

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denied it

then they generally acted like dicks about it

then they claimed they had every right to do so because Bush said so and we are at war.

This one they got caught redhanded as well but they are denying that they were responsible by basically blaming the system and using it a means to privatize that too.

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