WASHINGTON — In the year that has passed since Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon told Congress of the neglect he suffered at Walter Reed Medical Center, the Army’s premier hospital has begun to turn around.
"One of the first things they implemented was the Warrior Transition Unit. That is probably one of the best moves they ever could have made," Shannon said.
The unit provides wounded soldiers with a direct point of contact to help manage their recovery as they pass through the hospital and aftercare. Wounded soldiers now don’t have to worry as much that they will be lost in the bureaucracy as he was when he arrived at Walter Reed in November 2004, said Shannon, 44.
"Anyone like me, an individual patient, has a lot more access to people to ask questions of those who have the responsibility to get things done," he said.
Five days after suffering a gunshot wound to the head that cost him an eye, Shannon was handed a photocopied map of Walter Reed’s campus and directed to its outpatient Mologne House.
"I was extremely disoriented and wandered around while looking for someone to direct me to the Mologne House. Eventually, I found it. I had been given a couple of weeks’ appointments and some other paperwork upon leaving Ward 58, and I went to all my appointments during that time," he told a Congressional panel last year. "After these appointments, I sat in my room for another couple of weeks wondering when someone would contact me about my continuing medical care.
Finally, I went through the paperwork I was given and started calling all the phone numbers until I reached my case manager, who promptly got me the appointments I needed."
Shannon left Walter Reed in October and moved to a home in Suffolk, Va., with his wife and two sons. The transition from active duty to retired was not as seamless as Congress has demanded of the Pentagon and Veterans Affairs.
"There were hiccups along the way with that," Shannon said during a telephone interview last week.
Shannon was discharged in December but didn’t start receiving disability benefits from the VA until February. In between, he received private assistance from the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes.
He also struggled to get the VA to complete its evaluation of his disability status. At one point, the VA wanted him to return to Washington for three medical appointments over a five-day period.
His wife, Torrey, objected to him driving that distance and complained that he should be able to get the tests done at a VA hospital that is only 10 miles from their home.
"It was very frustrating," she said. "We were just getting the run around. And, my concern is that if they were doing this to Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon, who testified in front of Congress and was on the front of the Washington Post, then what are they doing to the guys with no name?"
Shannon’s appointments were switched to Hampton, Va., and he eventually received a full disability rating from the VA. Aside from losing his eye, Shannon suffers from a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress that makes it impossible for him to hold a job. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, said that Congress should hear Shannon’s story as it continues to oversee the treatment of wounded warriors. "I think there is a need for more legislation but the most important thing is oversight," he said.
The House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on national security held a hearing last week on progress at Walter Reed. The Government Accountability Office testified that the Army had significantly increased support for service members undergoing medical treatment and disability evaluations, but challenges remain.
"The bottom line is that there still are problems with the handoff from the Department of Defense to Veterans Affairs," Shays said.
"These hearings haven’t ended. The consensus is that notable progress has been made but there still are areas where they need to go farther."
GAO noted that the Army has made significant progress in establishing the "Warrior Transition Unit" but has had to use temporary personnel to fill all the slots. Progress has also been made in streamlining the disability evaluation process but that has not been completed.
Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., who chairs the subcommittee, agreed that more needs to be done even though much has accomplished to improve the military health care system.
"The Army has increased staff, as one example, by nearly 75 percent. I think that’s commendable. But unfortunately, I think we all recognized it’s equally clear that we have a ways to go on that," he said.
In particular, Tierney said that borrowing from other units to fill key positions is a temporary solution to a problem that begs for a permanent answer.
"Our wounded soldiers need long-term permanent solutions. And if any link in the support chain is weak, then the whole model cannot succeed. And once again, it’s the wounded soldiers and their families who will suffer," he said.
Tierney also noted that there have been complaints for decades about Disability Evaluation System but little action.
"If we don’t take advantage of this unique opportunity now to fundamentally fix the system, I’m concerned that five years from now we’ll still be wringing our hands and saying that we had an opportunity to act and did not," he said.
Army Surgeon General Eric Schoomaker told the subcommittee that the Army is "truly committed to getting this right and to providing a level of care and support to our warriors and families that is equal to the quality of their service."
Schoomaker said the Army now has 2,400 soldiers assigned to 35 Warrior Transition Units compared to February 2007 when 400 soldiers were doing the equivalent work.
"The most significant feature of these Warrior Transition Units is a triad which consists of a primary care physician, a nurse case manager and a squad leader, working together to attend to the needs to each individual and their family," he said. "It’s a true transformation in warrior care."
Schoomaker also acknowledged that the Army must continue to improve its physical disability evaluation system to make it "less antagonistic, more understandable and equitable for soldiers."
Shannon said that he understands fundamental changes will take time.
The task for Congress, he said, is to continue to ask questions and insure that milestones are being met.
"It has been a very long time since the military and the VA have had to handle so many wounded combat veterans. As a result, there are a lot of holes for people to slip through in a system that is antiquated," Shannon said.
