Solano County's Travis AFB David Grant hospital part of pilot program

David Grant hospital part of pilot program
http://www.thereporter.com/ci_10945566?source=rss

Travis Air Force Base will join 16 other military bases in the nation to host a new program aimed at evaluating injured soldiers quicker and more accurately. According to the Department of Defense, the Disability Evaluation System hopes to replace the cumbersome evaluation system exposed by the 2007 Walter Reed scandal with a single exam and disability rating that officials say is cutting the time spent in the system in half.

The pilot program is a test of a new process design eliminating the duplicative, time-consuming and often confusing elements of the two current disability processes of the departments. It will be offered to bases in all four military branches, according to the DOD. Key features of the DES program include one medical examination and a single-sourced disability rating..

Launched 11 months ago at three Washington D.C.-area military hospitals and expanded to three more since Oct. 1, the program has shown enough promise to warrant an expansion in areas outside Washington, said Tom Pamperin, deputy director of VA's compensation and pension service, according to the DOD. A final report to Congress is due in March and a decision to expand the program to all bases could follow..