thedrifter
02-24-07, 08:40 AM
Top DoD doctor stepping down
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 23, 2007 21:13:24 EST
The Pentagon’s top civilian health official is stepping down after 5½ years on the job — a move he says he not related to negative fallout over substandard living conditions experienced by some wounded veterans being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington or bureaucratic delays in determining whether such vets return to duty or are medically retired.
In a Feb. 23 interview in his Pentagon office, Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr. acknowledged that the timing of the previous night’s White House announcement of his replacement as assistant secretary of defense for health affairs was “odd” and “maybe, for some, raised some kind of question.”
But he said the problems at Walter Reed had had not prompted his leaving the job or sped up his departure date. Winkenwerder says he told former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about a year ago that he wanted to leave the position — “a great, great experience,” as he termed it — by the end of 2006. Last fall, officials still had not identified a replacement, and Winkenwerder was asked to stay on the job a little longer.
The president’s nominated replacement is cardiologist S. Ward Casscells III, currently a professor of medicine and public health at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and a colonel in the Army Reserve. Although Casscells’ nomination was announced during the week when the Walter Reed problems surfaced, Winkenwerder said the White House had been vetting Casscells for some time and that he’d been talking with Casscells for several weeks.
Winkenwerder said the announcement was to have been made in about 10 days, and blamed a “glitch in the communications back and forth” between the White House and the Defense Department and said the White House had apologized for the mix-up in making the announcement earlier than planned.
Winkenwerder, a board-certified internist, said he’d recently been juggling three job offers and is finalizing one of them. He would not reveal the name of his prospective employer, saying only that it is “a well-known entity in the health-care sector.” He said he plans to serve at the Pentagon for several more weeks and will assist Casscells if and when he’s confirmed by the Senate.
Winkenwerder arrived at the Pentagon 10 days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and, according to the Pentagon, served longer in his position than any other civil servant. He said the job’s “greatest pleasure” was “working with the men and women in uniform, and the people that I’ve worked with directly, as well as the doctors and nurses — their dedication, their patriotism, their service. It’s been a wonderful experience in knowing that the need for what we do has been so great.”
He said he’s proudest of the advances the Defense Department made in the areas of battlefield medicine; mental health treatment; digitization of combat medical records and its entire health records system; measuring the services’ medical readiness; the planned consolidation of Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center, a few miles away in Bethesda, Md.; bioterrorism preparedness; improving communication with other government agencies; helping allied militaries deal with infectious diseases such as AIDS; and improvements in customer satisfaction for users of Tricare, the military’s health system.
Winkenwerder also presided over the Pentagon’s controversial anthrax vaccine program. Mandatory shots were halted for almost two years by a lawsuit, but have just started up again for personnel serving in Southwest Asia and Korea. A second lawsuit challenging the mandatory program is in its early stages.
At least part of his body of work garnered kudos from a spokeswoman for The Retired Enlisted Association, a group that lobbies Congress on quality-of-life issues such as enlisted benefits.
“I think he took up the position at a very hard time, right after 9/11,” said Deirdre Holleman. “I’m convinced he’s worked very, very hard. In the last 5½ years, there have been huge improvements in Tricare Prime and Tricare Standard. The Tricare Pharmacy is a godsend to our members.”
Standard is the military’s basic health insurance system; Prime is similar to a civilian health maintenance organization; Pharmacy is the prescription drug program for the uniformed services, with both retail and mail-order options.
Casscells joined the Reserve less than two years ago, receiving a direct commission as a lieutenant colonel, and has been very active since. He returned just a few weeks ago from a three-month tour of duty in Iraq, for which he volunteered.
According to a news account published by the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Casscells has studied the avian flu in Asia and the Middle East, and has served as the Army Medical Command’s senior medical adviser for avian influenza and pandemic influenza.
Ellie
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 23, 2007 21:13:24 EST
The Pentagon’s top civilian health official is stepping down after 5½ years on the job — a move he says he not related to negative fallout over substandard living conditions experienced by some wounded veterans being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington or bureaucratic delays in determining whether such vets return to duty or are medically retired.
In a Feb. 23 interview in his Pentagon office, Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr. acknowledged that the timing of the previous night’s White House announcement of his replacement as assistant secretary of defense for health affairs was “odd” and “maybe, for some, raised some kind of question.”
But he said the problems at Walter Reed had had not prompted his leaving the job or sped up his departure date. Winkenwerder says he told former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about a year ago that he wanted to leave the position — “a great, great experience,” as he termed it — by the end of 2006. Last fall, officials still had not identified a replacement, and Winkenwerder was asked to stay on the job a little longer.
The president’s nominated replacement is cardiologist S. Ward Casscells III, currently a professor of medicine and public health at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and a colonel in the Army Reserve. Although Casscells’ nomination was announced during the week when the Walter Reed problems surfaced, Winkenwerder said the White House had been vetting Casscells for some time and that he’d been talking with Casscells for several weeks.
Winkenwerder said the announcement was to have been made in about 10 days, and blamed a “glitch in the communications back and forth” between the White House and the Defense Department and said the White House had apologized for the mix-up in making the announcement earlier than planned.
Winkenwerder, a board-certified internist, said he’d recently been juggling three job offers and is finalizing one of them. He would not reveal the name of his prospective employer, saying only that it is “a well-known entity in the health-care sector.” He said he plans to serve at the Pentagon for several more weeks and will assist Casscells if and when he’s confirmed by the Senate.
Winkenwerder arrived at the Pentagon 10 days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and, according to the Pentagon, served longer in his position than any other civil servant. He said the job’s “greatest pleasure” was “working with the men and women in uniform, and the people that I’ve worked with directly, as well as the doctors and nurses — their dedication, their patriotism, their service. It’s been a wonderful experience in knowing that the need for what we do has been so great.”
He said he’s proudest of the advances the Defense Department made in the areas of battlefield medicine; mental health treatment; digitization of combat medical records and its entire health records system; measuring the services’ medical readiness; the planned consolidation of Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center, a few miles away in Bethesda, Md.; bioterrorism preparedness; improving communication with other government agencies; helping allied militaries deal with infectious diseases such as AIDS; and improvements in customer satisfaction for users of Tricare, the military’s health system.
Winkenwerder also presided over the Pentagon’s controversial anthrax vaccine program. Mandatory shots were halted for almost two years by a lawsuit, but have just started up again for personnel serving in Southwest Asia and Korea. A second lawsuit challenging the mandatory program is in its early stages.
At least part of his body of work garnered kudos from a spokeswoman for The Retired Enlisted Association, a group that lobbies Congress on quality-of-life issues such as enlisted benefits.
“I think he took up the position at a very hard time, right after 9/11,” said Deirdre Holleman. “I’m convinced he’s worked very, very hard. In the last 5½ years, there have been huge improvements in Tricare Prime and Tricare Standard. The Tricare Pharmacy is a godsend to our members.”
Standard is the military’s basic health insurance system; Prime is similar to a civilian health maintenance organization; Pharmacy is the prescription drug program for the uniformed services, with both retail and mail-order options.
Casscells joined the Reserve less than two years ago, receiving a direct commission as a lieutenant colonel, and has been very active since. He returned just a few weeks ago from a three-month tour of duty in Iraq, for which he volunteered.
According to a news account published by the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Casscells has studied the avian flu in Asia and the Middle East, and has served as the Army Medical Command’s senior medical adviser for avian influenza and pandemic influenza.
Ellie