Military Medical Care Not Good Enough

Hagel: Military health care system not good enough
Stars and Stripes
By Chris Carroll
Published: October 1, 2014

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work, right, brief the press on the Military Health System, October 1, 2014.
GLENN FAWCETT/DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

WASHINGTON — The Department of Defense’s in-house review of its medical system concluded the department generally provides “safe and timely” care on par with non-military health care, according to a report released Wednesday. But the review also found significant examples of substandard care at individual facilities, including inadequate investigation of cases with bad medical outcomes.

“We cannot accept average when it comes to caring for our men and women in uniform and their families,” Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said at the Pentagon.

The review, overseen by Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work, looked at performance measures in three areas – health care quality, patient safety and access to care – at more than 50 military hospitals and 600 clinics serving 9.6 million patients worldwide, including active duty, family members and retired servicemembers. The report also reviewed health care purchased from the private sector.

The review order coincided with the announcement that the head of Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, had been relieved of his duty in the wake of two deaths at the hospital and problems with surgical infections, the New York Times reported.

An investigation by the paper, published in June, uncovered documents suggesting that the overall level of care in military hospitals is inferior to the civilian system.

Among the chronic problems the paper reported were failure to reliably report problems and higher than expected rates of harm and complications in two central areas — maternity care and surgery.

Babies born at military hospitals are twice as likely to be injured during delivery as those born as those born nationwide, while their mothers disproportionately experience hemorrhage after childbirth, the Times reported.
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