Wounded Soldiers are Optimistic, Thanks to the Military Health System

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Wounded Soldiers are Optimistic, Thanks to the Military Health System

March 19, 2008
No. 08-22


FALLS CHURCH, Va. - Most severely wounded soldiers polled by an independent
organization after receiving health care from the Military Health System
(MHS) say it's doing all it can do to aid their recovery.

Zogby International polled 435 soldiers wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan who
are members of Warrior Transition Units (WTUs) and receiving care in
military treatment facilities or through TRICARE, the Uniformed Services'
health care program. In their responses, 77 percent said they believe the
MHS is doing all it can to meet their health care needs. Fifty-eight
percent said that since they began receiving medical treatment their trust
and confidence in the system has increased, and a majority of them said
their expectations for recovery have increased since they returned from
their deployment.

"We wanted to hear from these heroes because they are best qualified to
judge our performance, " said Army Major General Elder Granger, Deputy
Director, TRICARE Management Activity. "It is of the utmost importance that
they have confidence in their medical care."

Soldiers who had been home longer from their deployment were more likely to
feel the MHS was doing all it should be doing to meet their needs. Among
those who had been home between 19 and 24 months, 84 percent said they
believed the system was doing all it could, and that number moved to 93
percent for those who had been home 25-36 months.

"What this tells us," Granger said, "is that once care begins, trust and
confidence in our health care grows. This is very gratifying news."

WTUs were created for soldiers who required at least six months of complex
medical care. These units are just part of the Defense Department's
initiative to maximize care to Wounded Warriors.

Details of the survey are available at
http://www.zogby. com/news/ ReadNews. dbm?ID=1463