The President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors, also known as the Dole-Shalala Commission, was established on March 6, 2007, when U.S. President George W. Bush signed. The Commission was established to examine and recommend improvements to the effectiveness and quality of transition from returning to military service or civilian society, health care, benefits, outreach to service members, and awareness among service members of healthcare and benefits programs.

Work process

The Commissioners visited the United States Department of Defense (DoD), United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and private-sector treatment facilities; interviewed injured service members and their families, health care professionals, and program managers; conducted a survey of injured service members; reviewed letters and emails from Service members, veterans, family members, and health care personnel; and analyzed recommendations of past commissions and task forces. This Commission had the unique task of evaluating the entire continuum of care instead of analyzing discrete systems and processes as similar commissions had done.

Findings

The Commission found consistent reports of high-quality battlefield medicine care provided by military and VA medical staff. Many of the report's findings focused on "seriously injured" service members, as identified by receipt of the one-time payment from Traumatic Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance to severely injured service members. The Commission found a strong correlation between the feedback received about DoD/VA health care and the feedback typically received about health care from the private sector, such as poor care coordination and continuity, ineffective information technology systems, enduring stigma threatening those who seek mental health care, and inadequate long-term rehabilitation and staff shortages.

Recommendations

This Commission made six recommendations with "action steps" to implement each recommendation. Also, each "action step" directs specific action roles to the VA, DoD, United States Congress, or some combination of these three entities.

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