Program to Improve Care for Service Members Begins

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Program to Improve Care for Service Members Begins

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 5, 2007; A02

The U.S. Marine Corps this week started its "Wounded Warrior Regiment" to help injured Marines and sailors through their recovery and an often difficult bureaucracy -- one of several new military initiatives to improve care for service members after the revelations of poor treatment and conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Marine officials said yesterday that Gen. James Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, ordered the establishment of the program in November in an effort to streamline benefits for Marines and sailors injured in ongoing wars and to help them transfer back to duty or into civilian life. The new regiment -- with battalions on each coast -- will reach out to service members to ensure that they are getting what they need and that they are successfully navigating the benefits bureaucracy.

"This brings oversight to the whole process to eliminate possible seams or cracks where Marines may fall through the system," Col. Gregory A. Boyle, the first commanding officer of the regiment, told reporters at the Pentagon yesterday.

Boyle said his main goals are to create a single system to deal with claims and to provide the individual assistance Marines need. "Part of my vision for the Wounded Warrior Regiment, the thing I want to deliver to these Marines, is that personal touch," Boyle said. "You know, I want these Marines to feel . . . that they're the center of the universe and that we care about them and we're concerned about them."

Boyle said the lessons learned from recent revelations of bureaucratic tangles and substandard conditions at Walter Reed have been instructive, and he said he will keep a close eye on the recommendations of several inquiries into the Army's handling of its wounded to assess better ways forward.

The Marine Corps regiment, as described, will be similar to the Army's "Wounded Warrior Transition Brigade," a unit that began work last month and is focused on ensuring proper care for outpatients.

Boyle said he also wants to reach out to Marines and sailors who have departed the military's medical care system to make sure they are getting the follow-up care, services and benefits to which they are entitled. He said he would like his regiment to contact the service members at least monthly.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Wounded Warrior Regiment launched
By Kimberly Johnson - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Apr 5, 2007 10:20:19 EDT

Injured Marines now have a new chain of command in place to help streamline medical care bureaucracy with this week’s launch of the Corps’ Wounded Warrior Regiment, the newly installed commander of the fledgling regiment said Wednesday.

The new regiment is the brainchild of Commandant Gen. James Conway, who since becoming commandant in November has repeatedly called for tracking the wounded through the labyrinth of follow-up medical care. “We have lost track of the wounded, we have had people overdose because they were improperly administering themselves with regard to their medicine,” he said earlier this year.

Col. Gregory Boyle, commander of 3rd Marines at Marine Corps Base Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, was tapped by Conway to lead the new regiment, and assumed command April 1. It will be headquartered at Quantico, Va., with two battalions — one each at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and Camp Lejeune, N.C.

The Wounded Warrior Regiment will begin initial operating capability in May, and will be fully operational by the end of summer, Boyle told reporters Wednesday.

“It brings oversight to the whole process, to eliminate possible seams or cracks where Marines may fall through the system,” Boyle said.

While two wounded warrior barracks already exist at Pendleton and Lejeune, the creation of the regimental headquarters element is expected to unify the efforts. Previously, “all of us have been working towards the same goal,” but not using the same procedures or working under the same commander, he said.

“The Wounded Warrior Regiment frames unity ... continuity of command — one commander responsible for accounting for, for tracking and meeting the needs of our wounded, our ill and our injured,” he said.

Specifically, the regiment will help wounded leathernecks through medical and physical evaluation boards, assist them in making insurance claims, act as a clearing house for charitable donations and work to ensure accountability and non-medical case management during their recovery, Boyle said. The regiment will focus on ensuring the injured receive the same level of medical care, no matter where they live in the country, he added.

“One process, one set of standard operating procedures that supports active duty, reserve and separated personnel. One-stop shopping for resources, referral and education,” he said.

The regiment will also oversee transition from Defense Department care to Veterans Affairs Department care, he said. “We will aggressively follow-up with periodic contact to ensure the needs of those Marines and sailors are being met.”

The regiment launches with about 370 injured Marines considered in- and out-patients, but Boyle sees potential for more. “Part of my vision... is I want to be able to have the ability to reach back to the Marines who have already left the service,” including those injured in the first wave of the Iraq war. Boyle said he wants to contact them on a monthly basis, “and let them know we’re still out there and we still care about them.”

“Marines take care of their Marines from the point of injury throughout their recovery and as they transition back into duty or out of the Marine Corps,” Boyle said.

Ellie

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Support services to expand for sick and injured Marines

Regiment created to cut bureaucracy
By Paul M. Krawzak
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

April 5, 2007

Camp Pendleton's Wounded Warrior Center will be expanded, with more staffing and new barracks, as part of the creation of a national regiment to improve services for injured and ill Marines, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

The new Wounded Warrior regiment, based at Quantico, Va., will oversee such services at Camp Pendleton and Camp Lejeune, N.C.

The Wounded Warrior program began in 2005 to help injured Marines and associated sailors and their families find proper medical care, fill out insurance forms and secure other assistance.

Several Marine commands have been involved in running the program, and “all of them are not necessarily aware of how the system works,” said Col. Gregory A.D. Boyle, commander of the new regiment.

Boyle said putting the program under a single command will increase efficiency.

“One of our goals is to help Marines cut through the bureaucracy,” Boyle said during a news conference in Washington, D.C.

The regiment was officially established Sunday. Boyle said it would start operating in May and would be fully operational by summer's end.

Fourteen Marines currently live in the Wounded Warrior barracks at Camp Pendleton, and 36 are in the barracks at Camp Lejeune, said Marine spokeswoman 1st Lt. Blanca Binstock.

Other Marines at Camp Pendleton also benefit from the program but do not live in the barracks, Pentagon officials said.

The base's center has 10 workers. While staff members will be added, Boyle said, the number hasn't been determined.

Pentagon officials said they are seeking $53 million from Congress to build more barracks at Camp Pendleton and Camp Lejeune, as well as construct a regimental headquarters at Quantico.

Ellie