WP: Report Says Fixes Slow To Come at Walter Reed

[Coexist]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/26/AR2007092601600.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

More than half a year after disclosures of systemic problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other military hospitals, the Pentagon's promised fixes are threatened by staff shortages and uncertainty about how best to improve long-term care for wounded troops, according to a congressional report issued yesterday.

Army units developed to shepherd recovering soldiers lack enough nurses and social workers, and proposals to streamline the military's disability evaluation system and to provide "recovery coordinators" are behind schedule, according to the Government Accountability Office report.

<snip>
Michael L. Dominguez, a deputy undersecretary of defense, testified that a pilot program was approved this week but probably would not begin evaluating wounded soldiers until January.

"We're seven months into this process, and we're just now getting off the ground," Tierney said. "Why has it taken so long?"