Mr. Speaker, today a story appeared in the Washington Post entitled ``Pentagon Red Tape Keeps Medical Records From Doctors of the Wounded.'' The Defense Department is refusing to give the records of…
Mr. Speaker, today a story appeared in the Washington Post entitled ``Pentagon Red Tape Keeps Medical Records From Doctors of the Wounded.''
The Defense Department is refusing to give the records of people wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan to physicians who are taking care of them in the Veterans Department. It is absolutely unbelievable that there could be that kind of bureaucratic snafu.
Now the Defense Department says, We don't have the authority to give the records on the wounded that are leaving us and going to the Veterans Department.
Absolute bureaucratic nonsense. I have introduced H.R. 1128 with Mr. Filner, which gives that authority to the Defense Department. I hope that other Members will sign this bill, and that we will pass it by unanimous consent when we return to the House after the Presidents' Day break.
In the next week, there are going to be people who are injured and transferred to the veterans hospitals who can't get their records transferred. How can a doctor take care of somebody if they don't know what happened to them on the battlefield? This is the kind of thing we have to stop if we support the troops.
[From the Washington Post, Feb. 16, 2007]
Pentagon Red Tape Keeps Medical Records From Doctors of the Wounded
(By Al Kamen)
Department of Veterans Affairs doctors are furious over a
recent decision by the Pentagon to block their access to
medical information needed to treat severely injured troops
arriving at VA hospitals from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The VA physicians handle troops with serious brain injuries
and other major health problems. They rely on digital medical
records that track the care given wounded troops from the
moment of their arrival at a field hospital through their
evacuation to the United States.
About 30 VA doctors in four trauma centers around the
country have treated about 200 severely wounded soldiers and
Marines. The docs had been receiving the complete digital
records from the Pentagon until the end of January, using the
Pentagon's Joint Patient Tracking Application.
But on Jan. 25, when Shane McNamee, a physician in the
Richmond VA Medical Center, tried to get the full records, he
couldn't. He sent an urgent e-mail to VA chief liaison
officer Edward Huycke.
``My JPTA account has been disabled within last few days,''
McNamee wrote. ``I called the hotline and was told that all
VA accounts have been locked. Could not get a good answer
why. Anyhow--I have 4 [Iraq/Afghanistan] service members to
arrive within the next 2 days. This information is terribly
important,'' the doctor wrote.
Thirty-four minutes later Huycke e-mailed back: ``Ok,
Shane. Will get on it. Not sure what's up.''
An hour or so later, a senior VA official forwarded
McNamee's e-mail to Lt. Col. David Parramore at the Pentagon,
saying that McNamee ``needs his access back to JPTA to
provide the best possible treatment for soldiers injured in
[Iraq/Afghanistan] arriving there in a few days. Can you
help?''
Tommy Morris, director of Deployment Health Systems,
responded the next morning to Parramore's inquiry, after
contacting Ellen Embry, deputy assistant secretary of defense
for force health protection. ``I spoke with Embry and no
agreements, no data sharing via access to JPTA.''
The access cutoff came after Morris, in a Jan. 23 e-mail,
instructed a colleague: ``If the VA currently has access I
need a list of persons and I need their accounts shut off
ASAP. It is illegal for them to have access without data use
agreements and access controls in place by federal
regulations and public law.''
There have been meetings between VA and Pentagon officials.
The Pentagon declined to comment yesterday. VA officials
apparently thought it might have been resolved Monday. But an
e-mail Monday from Morris to a co-worker said: ``The
leadership has not authorized the VA accounts to be turned
back on, in case someone approaches you about this.''
Last week, Sens. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) and Larry E.
Craig (Idaho)--the chairman and ranking Republican on the
Veterans' Affairs Committee--wrote David S.C. Chu,
undersecretary of defense for personnel, of their ``deep
concern'' about VA trauma center doctors not having access to
complete records.
``For those servicemembers suffering from a traumatic brain
injury,'' they wrote, ``VA's access to in-theater imaging is
an important and valuable tool for tracking their patient's
progress since being wounded or injured.'' They suggested the
VA doctor be given temporary access to JPTA while the data-
sharing questions are worked out.
They're still awaiting an appropriate response. McNamee is
still waiting for the records.
