Problems found with Leonard Wood drug program

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Problems found with Leonard Wood drug program
By Gregg Zoroya - USA TODAY
Posted : Friday Nov 21, 2008 6:48:57 EST

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — A hospital accreditation team that evaluated the General Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital’s substance abuse counseling program last year found “waiting lists and a problem with access to care,” their report said.

The counseling program was sorely understaffed, according to the July 2007 report by the Joint Commission accrediting agency. Army guidelines require at least six drug counselors; the hospital had three. Soldiers at the training installation here were having trouble receiving treatment for drug or alcohol problems.

That finding echoed problems throughout the Army, where the number of soldiers seeking substance abuse counseling has risen steadily over the past five years but not the number of counselors available to treat them, Army records show.

Yet just one month after the review at the base here, there was no longer a waiting list for treatment, says John Speckhals, a drug counselor who was working there at the time.

In an official complaint in March to Maj. Gen. William ”Bill” McCoy, then installation commander, Speckhals said that was because the program’s clinical director had diverted soldiers away from treatment to eliminate the waiting list. In his complaint, Speckhals said Lee was screening out applicants to the program because Col. Theresa Sullivan, then the hospital commander, did not want any waiting lists after the reprimand from the Joint Commission accreditation review in July.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/gns_drugprogram_112008/%2e