WASHINGTON - The US Army's surgeon general said Tuesday that the bureaucratic mistreatment of wounded soldiers exposed at the army's top hospital is probably mirrored at other army health facilities.
Lieutenant General Kevin Kiley came under a second day of questioning by lawmakers outraged over a bureaucratic morass that bedeviled convalescing soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center, and over the army's failure to deal with it.
Kiley, the army's chief medical officer, said he "probably should have known more" about problems that arose from a complex bureaucratic system that kept wounded soldiers languishing for months while they waited to be evaluated for disability benefits.
"And what's going on at Walter Reed in terms of the frustration of the staffs and the patients is probably mirrored to some extent in most of our other facilities, as I hear commanders talk to us about these issues," Kiley said.
"I think it's amplified a little at Walter Reed because of the sheer numbers. There are a lot of soldiers at Walter Reed that are going through that process," he said.
The endless bureaucratic hurdles was one aspect of a scandal over outpatient care at the hospital, a renowned specialty care facility in Washington that has treated thousands of soldiers with severe wounds suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The army lost track of many wounded soldiers after they became outpatients at the hospitals. Some were housed in a mice, roach and mold infested barracks building outside the hospital gates.
The army is now renovating the building and hiring more case managers to help soldiers through the bureaucratic maze.
But a political firestorm ignited by a series of Washington Post stories detailing the problems shows little sign of abating despite the sacking of the army's civilian chief and the commander of Walter Reed.
Kiley, who initially played down the disclosures as unfair and one sided, has come under intense scrutiny because he led the hospital from 2003 to 2004 and has since had broad command responsibility for the army's medical system.
General Peter Schoomaker, the army chief of staff, was asked about the extent of Kiley's responsibility in this situation.
"From the standpoint of knowing something specifically that hadn't been brought to his attention in a single barracks someplace, I would say that's a stretch," Schoomaker said.
"However, the system should elevate the kinds of things that require resources and to get fixed," he said.
Senator John McCain, a Republican, said there have been reports of complaints at other army bases, and questioned whether Walter Reed was "the tip of the iceberg."
"Well, we're going to check, and we're going to find out. And we will correct those that we have," Schoomaker said.
"So it's not just a Building 18 maybe?" McCain asked.
"Maybe not. That's correct," Schoomaker said.
03/06/2007 18:44 GMT