Disney Pixie dust deployed to Walter Reed Hospital

Trying Some Disney Attitude to Help Cure Walter ReedBy Steve Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 25, 2008; Page B01

Fifty medical workers -- doctors, nurses, therapists and administrators among them -- sat in a room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center gazing at a slide of Donald Duck on a screen.

The oft-cranky Disney cartoon character, wearing his blue sailor jacket and cap, was in a palpable rage. His webbed feet had lifted off the ground, his beak was gaping, and his white-gloved hands were tightly clutching an old-fashioned two-piece telephone.

"We can clearly see he's frustrated," said Kris Lafferty, a trainer for the Disney Institute who was leading workers at the Northwest Washington hospital last week in a four-hour seminar on customer service. "Why do we think he's frustrated?"

A year after a scandal erupted over the long-term treatment of soldiers at the hospital, the Army has turned to Disney for help. "Service, Disney Style" is newly required for all military and other government employees at Walter Reed.

Lafferty and her fellow Disney trainer, Mike Donnelly, handed out little plastic Goofy and Mickey Mouse figurines as they led Wednesday afternoon's discussion with the workers -- some in uniform, some in scrubs, some in civilian clothes.

Various theories were offered for Donald Duck's ire: He was getting the run-around. He could not get a question answered. He was flummoxed by his antique phone.

The lesson: Poor service equals frustration.

At the tables, heads nodded in agreement. It's a familiar story at Walter Reed, where wounded soldiers and their families often confront a numbing bureaucracy.

The Army is paying Disney $800,000 to help revamp attitudes at the hospital.
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What kind of a stunt is this and how bad could it have been they had to hire Disney to train them on how to treat people?

"It sounds a little odd, but it's true," said Rear Adm. John Mateczun, commander of a joint task force overseeing military medicine in the Washington region.

So why didn't they just ask the people who run Fisher House how to treat the wounded better?

Col. Patricia D. Horoho, commander of the Walter Reed health-care system, said the goal is to change the culture there. "When you enter the hospital, we want it to be the best experience possible," she said. "Disney fits that.

The goal is to change the culture there? Are they serious? Can they have treated wounded veterans that badly they needed this for real?

Up until now I thought the problems at Walter Reed had more to do with being under funded. A lot of the problems came when Walter Reed was on the block to be shut down. As stupid as that was, that was the excuse behind the deplorable conditions there. Now I'm wondering how bad the attitude of the staff was toward the wounded they would need to pay out $800,000 to fix it?

If the DOD really wanted to change attitudes they need to begin with the units these wounded come from first. TBI and PTSD are still regarded as something to be ashamed of. Considering they used a cartoon to try to communicate the seriousness of PTSD while providing absolutely nothing substantial, they really should have hired Disney to provide a better one. If they are serious about changing attitudes then they should seek out the real professionals who have been taking care of the wounded with privately funded places like Fisher House. Needless to remind people that Fisher House wouldn't have to be there if the DOD and the VA had their own acts together to do it right in the first place.

Excuse me if this report makes me furious but considering when I read the title I thought it was about coming out with entertainment for the wounded instead of a training session on how to treat the wounded better. You would have thought they would have already known how to do that.