[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 4526-4527]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  PENTAGON RED TAPE KEEPS MEDICAL RECORDS FROM DOCTORS OF THE WOUNDED

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. 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.''

[[Page 4527]]

       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.

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