With 23 public meetings, 17 site visits at military and Veterans Affairs facilities, and a national survey of 1,700 seriously injured soldiers, leading the President’s Commission on Care for Returning Wounded Warriors has been a three-month whirlwind for UM President Donna E. Shalala and former U.S. Senator Bob Dole. Appointed in March by President George W. Bush, the nine commission members “unanimously approved six bold recommendations to serve, support, and simplify care for injured service members,” Shalala reported to the press in a July teleconference.

Many of the recommendations, Shalala said, break through the bureaucracy that has muddied the timely delivery of essential health care services to wounded soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Senator Dole estimated that there are more than 3,000 soldiers who would benefit from the recommended changes.

“Bureaucracies are created by people of good will who think they can fix the problem by adding a program, adding more people, or adding a regulation,” Shalala said, noting that the commission’s job was to take a step back and focus on what’s good for the patient. “Every seriously wounded soldier needs a single coordinator who is going to be there and a recovery plan that’s designed by doctors and other health care professionals to get them either back to the military or back to civilian life.”

Besides offering a more streamlined approach to patient case management that includes a My e-Benefits Web site, the commission’s recommendations also address disability benefits, treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, and options for family members of injured military personnel who have to leave work to become caregivers.