Two Crying Shames In A Row: Dumping The Homeless & Injured Combat Soldiers

‘Dumping’ of Homeless by Hospitals Stirs Debate

Owing its start in the late 1970s when the then GOP-controlled congress called for so many significant cutbacks on funding, along with a civil rights case that called for the release of inappropriately institutionalized persons, there have been many people needing medical care dumped into the streets... it's a trend that has not ceased to exist since it started.

The problems of the homeless only exacerbate when they are not given proper health care. As a result of this form of neglect and ostracization, the medical needs of the homeless often result in maladies that require not only hospitalization, but management of chronic conditions and social work intervention... which doesn't often occur because of the neglect.

The fact that hospitals, which were historically founded by Catholic religious orders on Christian principles of caring for those in the most need, now put their emphasis on making money rather than breaking even and providing the maximum service to those in need, is evidence that our emphasis on an elitist form of capitalism in our society is undermining our very principles offered in the Preamble of the Constitution, and the principles of most religious doctrines, including Christianity. Isn't it a shameful state of affairs when the leaders of the most staunch Christian denominations call for such neglect in the name of political leadership when they also claim a firm belief in the teachings of Christ. I seem to recall something in the Scriptures (specifically the Gospels) that states when we "do this for the least among you, you do it for Me."

For a year, reports have surfaced that hospitals here have left homeless patients on downtown streets, including a paraplegic man wearing a hospital gown and colostomy bag who witnesses say pulled himself through the streets with a plastic bag of his belongings held in his teeth.

Now, prosecutors are hoping a bill introduced last week in the State Senate will give them stronger legal firepower to charge the hospitals.

Of the 55 or so reports of “patient dumping,” principally in the dilapidated quarter known as Skid Row, only a handful are being investigated for criminal activity, said Rocky Delgadillo, the city attorney. Only one hospital has been charged, using a misdemeanor count that has never been tested in court.

The problem is that while California state law requires hospitals to have written procedures outlining follow-up care for patients, it does not expressly prohibit leaving them on the street.

Advocates for the homeless said it was common in many cities for homeless people still requiring medical treatment to end up on the street or at the doors of shelters ill prepared for their medical needs.

“Hospitals don’t know what to do with them, and they think it’s the homeless agencies’ responsibility,” said Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, a Washington advocacy group.

Mr. Stoops said local and federal laws were murky, at best, over where homeless patients should be discharged.

Defense Secretary Vows Action on Medical Center Conditions and At Walter Reed, 'We're Going to Fix It' and Damaged and Adrift in the Shadows

In a continuing saga of disrespect by the Bush administration toward our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, the conditions at Walter Reed Army Hospital--the flagship of Army medicine--are less than sanitary in terms of housing for soldiers receiving longer term care for rehabilitation and housed in rehab barracks. The reports indicate cockroaches infest one of the buildings in which injured soldiers are housed. Of course, anyone that knows anything about cockroaches knows that if they are in one building on campus, they are more than likely traveling through connected plumbing and electrical runways and systems--including the sewers--throughout the campus. In fact, as a matter of military training on hospital design and environmental safety, roach infestation is a common problem for hospitals that are not managing the food and medical wastes properly.

But it speaks volumes about how we do not value our military service members that the conditions at the Army's flagship hospital were even allowed to deteriorate to such a degree as reported by the Washington Post. But it doesn't surprise me because when I was stationed at the AHS, HSETC, Ft. Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas--the home of the second flagship hospital of the Army, Brooks Army Medical Center--the barracks I was placed in were cockroach infested, had rotting shower stalls and were so old that they were beyond fair use as barracks. While it is true that other military service members were housed in more modern barracks, it was shameful that anyone would have been required to stay in such barracks ab initio.

A top Army general vowed yesterday to personally oversee the upgrading of Walter Reed Army Medical Center's Building 18, a dilapidated former hotel that houses wounded soldiers as outpatients.

Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army vice chief of staff, used terminology similar to that of a military campaign to describe his plan to overhaul the broken building, including giving it a more "appropriate" name, and the sluggish bureaucracy for outpatient care.

"We own that building, and we're going to take charge of it," Cody said at the Pentagon. "The senior Army leadership takes full responsibility for the lack of quality of life at Building 18, and we're going to fix it."

Cody blamed "a breakdown in leadership" for the troubling conditions but said no one has been fired or relieved of command. He did point to lower-ranking officers and noncommissioned officers lacking "the right experience and the authority to be able to execute some of the missions."

"That's what we're correcting right now," he said.

Cody and William Winkenwerder Jr., the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said at a news conference that they frequently visit Walter Reed and were surprised and disappointed by the living conditions and the fact that they had learned about them from media reports. The Washington Post reported Sunday and Monday on the challenges facing outpatients at Walter Reed.

"We get concerns all the time directed to us. But we never got a concern sent our way about this issue, which is a little surprising. I'm not sure why that is," Winkenwerder said.

Standards of medical care at Walter Reed remain high, he said, but he acknowledged: "The trust has taken a hit here. And I think it's our job to repair that trust and to re-earn that trust. And that's what we're going to do."

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Friday that he would move swiftly to improve conditions for wounded soldiers being treated as outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and warned that senior officials would be held accountable for the poor conditions.

Mr. Gates, speaking to reporters after touring the facilities and speaking to several patients, said he was upset by recent reports in The Washington Post describing wounded soldiers living in dilapidated buildings near the Walter Reed campus and portraying the huge paperwork and other bureaucratic hurdles they had to overcome during treatment.

Mr. Gates announced the creation of an eight-member commission that would examine conditions at Walter Reed, on the outskirts of Washington, and other military hospitals, and then make recommendations for improvements within 45 days.

“After the facts are established, those responsible for having allowed this unacceptable situation to develop will indeed be held responsible,” Mr. Gates said.

As the number of service members wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan has climbed in recent years, Defense Department officials have long held up Walter Reed as a facility offering unmatched care. But the large number of patients there, currently about 650, has forced officials to rely on overflow facilities nearby more than they have in the past and has caused long waits for some treatments, officials acknowledged.

Pentagon officials have emphasized that the quality of care at Walter Reed and other Army facilities is generally high. They have said that the poor conditions, which included moldy walls, cockroaches, mouse droppings and stained carpets, were confined to a 54-room Army-owned facility across the street from the main Walter Reed campus where nearly 70 recovering service members are being housed.

But the Post reports prompted several days of damage control by Army and Pentagon officials that have veered between acknowledging the situation and playing it down. The Army’s top medical officer, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, described the newspaper’s account as a “one-sided representation” at a news conference Thursday, emphasizing that he was objecting to the tone of the stories, not the facts.