Disuse of System Is Cited in Gaps in Soldiers’ Care

NY Times ^ | March 30, 2007 | IAN URBINA and RON NIXON

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WASHINGTON, March 29 — Lapses in using a digital medical record system for tracking wounded soldiers have led to medical mistakes and delays in care, and have kept thousands of injured troops from getting benefits, according to former defense and military medical officials.

The Defense Department’s inability to get all hospitals to use the system has routinely forced thousands of wounded soldiers to endure long waits for treatment, the officials said, and exposed others to needless testing.

Several department officials said the problem may have played a role in the suicide of a soldier last year after he was taken to Fort Lewis in Washington State from Iraq. His intentions to kill himself were clearly documented in his digital medical record from overseas, but doctors at Fort Lewis did not consult the file and released him, according to department records and defense officials.

“The D.O.D.’s failure to share data and track patient records is truly a matter of life and death,” Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, said in a statement. “This isn’t an isolated case, but a system-wide failure.”

The system was designed to make seamless the transition of soldiers who were wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan as they moved to hospitals stateside. But only 13 of 70 military treatment centers in the United States use it even though it was mandated by the Pentagon more than two years ago, according to agency documents.

As a result, military doctors say they are less able to learn from mistakes since they cannot track the progress of wounded soldiers from one location to another. Others complain of costly and redundant testing.

“Patients are being unnecessarily exposed to radiation,” said Lt. Col. Gina Dorlac, medical director of the intensive care unit at a hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, where most severely wounded soldiers...

[wildcatf4f3]

This is why we need national socialized medical care