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Reed official touts new medical care units

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — The deputy commander of Walter Reed Army Medical Center said Thursday that wounded soldiers are healing faster and returning to duty quicker in new specialized medical care units.

Brig. Gen. Michael S. Tucker visited a warrior transition unit at Fort Campbell and toured new barracks designed for injured soldiers. Some of the rooms are designed for soldiers in wheelchairs with lowered sinks and beds and larger showers.

Tucker, who has just been appointed assistant surgeon general for warrior care transition, said the Army has 10,000 soldiers who can’t deploy because of medical issues.

The Pentagon created the units after problems were discovered at Walter Reed. Each soldier in the unit is assigned a primary care manager, a case manager and a squad leader. However, a Government Accountability Office report last month found that more than half of the 35 new medical units were not fully staffed.

Tucker said the Army is still working to staff those units and expects to have data early next year to prove the units are providing quicker medical care.

“Our length of stay in a [warrior transition unit] is 180 days,” said Tucker, noting that units are averaging a 79 percent return to duty. “That is starting to draw back, which means I’m achieving efficiency.”

Sgt. Maj. David Allard, commander of Fort Campbell’s WTU, said they have more than 300 wounded soldiers to care for. Squad leaders make sure soldiers are going to doctors’ appointments, following their medication orders and help them through rehabilitation.

Many soldiers are returning from deployment from Iraq and Afghanistan with mental, as well as physical, medical problems. But the Army was slow to realize the impact of traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, Tucker said.

“We had an awareness problem,” he said. “We had to train our leaders into knowing what their responsibilities were and to get the soldier the proper care.”

Tucker said the military cannot leave another generation of war veterans unprepared to take care of themselves after their military service.

“We’ve got to give them the skills to be successful, to be providers for their families,” he said, adding that the Army is reviewing personality disorder discharges to see if the soldiers were actually suffering from PTSD or TBI.

Every discharge now has to go through a screening for those disorders, he said.

“We’re going back to account for that,” Tucker said. “The Army isn’t going to look the other way.”

Sgt. Aaron Manis, 29, spent six months at Walter Reed after being shot by a sniper during a tour in Iraq. He was one of the first soldiers to enter Fort Campbell’s warrior transition unit and said he’s seen improvements to the Army’s health care system over the past year.

“Less soldiers are being lost in the process,” Manis said.

DISCUSS: The changes at Reed