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Military hospitals shrinking services to meet spending cuts
Stars & Stripes ^ | August 3, 2013 | Gregg Zoroya

Posted on 08/04/2013 6:05:34 AM PDT by Timber Rattler

Patients at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and other premier military hospitals are being sent to private doctors and having surgery and other treatment delayed because of furloughs to medical personnel, according to interviews and internal documents.

"Please show (patients) the utmost understanding and care while we are asking them to accept longer wait times and in some cases, curtailed or limited services," Rear Adm. Alton Stocks, hospital commander, told staff in a July 12 message.

A "colleagues" memo issued in recent days says inpatient beds are in "critically short supply" because of furloughs of civilian staff triggered by federal spending cuts known as sequestration.

The memo encourages "dispositions/discharges as soon as possible." Hospital spokesperson Sandy Dean explained this direction, saying, "We are are encouraging health care providers to be more efficient when handling their paperwork instead of writing discharge orders later in the day ... no patient has been or will be discharged before it is medically appropriate."

(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: hospitals; military; sequestration; shrink
Disgraceful.
1 posted on 08/04/2013 6:05:35 AM PDT by Timber Rattler
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To: Timber Rattler

Disgusting and reprehensible.

Criminal illegal aliens are brought in to
get “free” medical/surgical care at US taxpayer expense.


2 posted on 08/04/2013 6:09:06 AM PDT by Diogenesis
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To: Timber Rattler

Excuse my French. There is no excuse for this $hit. and that is what it is $hit.

Furloughing people who are needed at military hospitals while this so-called President is vacationing in Hyanissport or wherever the hell he happens to be vacationing and playing Golf this week. We need to sequester the White House. THAT is where the furloughs should be. How is poor Michelle going to keep the weeds out of her garden if she isn’t there? As if she has anything to do with a garden other than getting her picture taken in it.

Tossing millions into advertising his Obamacare disaster.
If it was any damned good it wouldn’t need to be advertised, people would be jumping at it.

Spending on Green when it is failing.
Tossing money away trying to crucify Zimmerman.
Sending millions to Al Qaeda.
sending millions to Egypt.


3 posted on 08/04/2013 6:16:52 AM PDT by Venturer ( cowardice posturing as tolerance =political correctness)
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To: Timber Rattler

Transfer the funds from the EBT card crowd. This is a typical liberal hate for the military.


4 posted on 08/04/2013 6:19:39 AM PDT by mosaicwolf (Strength and Honor)
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To: Timber Rattler
A "colleagues" memo issued in recent days says inpatient beds are in "critically short supply" because of furloughs of civilian staff triggered by federal spending cuts known as sequestration.

If military facilities do not have the space/equipment/manpower to handle everyone, the law (I know - the law means nothing to this admin) compels them to refer out to civilian entities.

5 posted on 08/04/2013 6:20:30 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: Venturer

All this is being done deliberately and was planned and it is being done maliciously to inflict the maximum pain. Obama’s desciples carefully, slowly and deliberately did this. It is no accident.


6 posted on 08/04/2013 6:21:32 AM PDT by sport
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To: Diogenesis

...and we’ll keep on shrinking the care until everyone’s quality is the same!! That’s only fair! If you can’t improve one, make all the others worse!


7 posted on 08/04/2013 6:29:14 AM PDT by Dr. Pritchett
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To: Timber Rattler
Two ways to look at this.One is from the standpoint of our duty to guys in uniform and no longer in uniform.They,unlike our Community Agitator-In-Chief and most of his pals,know the meaning of words like duty,honor and sacrifice and yet *they*,unlike that fat worthless $350K/r no show job pig I call The First Creature,have to wait for an operation.Oh well,it's not as if this is the first time in his life he's shown complete,utter and despicable contempt for our Armed Forces.

The other way to look at this is,in a nutshell,that this is *our* future under OsamaObamaCare.Not the future of the rich,powerful or "connected",*our* future...the future of the "great unwashed".

8 posted on 08/04/2013 6:31:46 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (If Obama Had A City It Would Look Like Detroit.)
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To: Timber Rattler
Military hospitals shrinking services to meet spending cuts

What cuts? There were NO CUTS!

9 posted on 08/04/2013 6:35:56 AM PDT by Common Sense 101 (Hey libs... If your theories fly in the face of reality, it's not reality that's wrong.)
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To: Timber Rattler

A $100,000,000 VACATION WHILE INPATIENT BEDS ARE IN CRITICALLY SHORT SUPPLY?


10 posted on 08/04/2013 6:36:02 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (If Obama Had A City It Would Look Like Detroit.)
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To: sport

Well, McConnell and Boehner went along with it too when they passed the sequestration provision, so they’re equally culpable in my opinion.


11 posted on 08/04/2013 6:48:23 AM PDT by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
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To: Common Sense 101; zot

Correct, in over all big government spending, no cuts. However, the DoD did have its budget cut for this year and for next year under sequester. It is the Obama way, cut the military so to ‘save’ money for his social welfare programs. And Obama figured that the Republicans would ‘roll over’ to save the DoD from sequester cuts, and luckily the repub’s didn’t do it.

This is the old demo game, cut the police and fire depts, while the other social-welfare programs in city and state govt continue, because those programs PAY for people’s votes.


12 posted on 08/04/2013 6:53:00 AM PDT by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: Timber Rattler

Mine is not exactly the same, I was a retiree’s wife, but I had to leave the hospital/drs where I rec’d my health care. I was not being medically cared for in a competent manner and it was affecting my health. I could see that in the future it might even bring my death earlier than otherwise. I left and found a PCP in the community and he’s taking good care, sending me to specialists as needed, etc.
For one example, got a blood test that showed I had diabetes and wasn’t told for over a year, then the dr’s nurse told me that it was my fault for not knowing. First time that Captain had ever been talked to like that, I’m sure, because I let him have it!!!!


13 posted on 08/04/2013 7:37:52 AM PDT by Shimmer1 ("What a poor, ignorant, malicious, short-sighted, crapulous mass." John Adams)
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To: Timber Rattler
If it takes a manufactured crisis and some intentionally caused suffering to make Obama's predictions come true, so be it.


14 posted on 08/04/2013 7:38:46 AM PDT by Iron Munro (They Old. That's Old School People. We In A New School, Our Generation)
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To: trebb

(I am a former military brat/spouse, no longer entitled to benefits.) I have seen a huge uptick in military and dependents seeking care at local civillian facilities, and we have a HUGE military hospital here. I was recently at the dermatologist, and a woman in uniform came in and asked to have her appointment rushed, because the general was all of a sudden visiting her unit. A civilian medical office. Trust me, our local doctors are already wait-listed without overflow from the base. They need to get their act together at that big hospital. Back in my day, you only went off-base when they didn’t provide the service at all (I had my son off-base because Clinton closed OBGYN at our Navy hospital.)


15 posted on 08/04/2013 8:21:54 AM PDT by conservative cat
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To: Timber Rattler
Military medicine does an OK job of treating young service members for routine, acute, and combat casualty care. They do a lousy job with dependents and retirees. Better frankly that they get care in the private sector. My parents went to Walter Reed for years until their chronic conditions necessitated higher quality treatment. Still got their medicines from one of the local Army clinics, a godsend, but they received much better care from nearby PCPs and specialists. (Young doctors at Walter Reed completely misdiagnosed my mother's aggressive ovarian cancer. Did not do basic protocol to determine the cause of her bleeding. By the time we went to a civilian physician, tumor had grown to bowling ball size and spread to her abdomen.)
16 posted on 08/04/2013 9:03:52 AM PDT by twister881
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To: conservative cat
They need to get their act together at that big hospital. Back in my day, you only went off-base when they didn’t provide the service at all (I had my son off-base because Clinton closed OBGYN at our Navy hospital.)

I'm retired military and under TriCare Prime. They sometimes stretch the rules and make you wait longer for an appointment, but both my wife and I have been referred off-base in timely manners (so far) when necessary. Lack of enough folks in certain specialties have made it so they gave my wife a "just-in-case" referral to cut through red tape because she gets skin cancers that grow fast if not attended to ASAP. Supposedly not malignant type, but she gets to go to her long-term civilian doctor when things crop up. I'm at Keesler in Biloxi, MS and while things could be better, there are some doctors that care enough that you know they will leave for private practice. It's always the bad ones that stick around...

17 posted on 08/04/2013 9:17:21 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: Timber Rattler

I’m sure they are still doing battlefield addadichtome’s though.


18 posted on 08/04/2013 9:23:58 AM PDT by wonkowasright (Wonko from outside the asylum)
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To: Timber Rattler

I agree.


19 posted on 08/04/2013 9:24:21 AM PDT by sport
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To: GreyFriar

Yes, this is the Obama way.


20 posted on 08/04/2013 2:03:04 PM PDT by zot
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