The Subcommittee on Health will now come to order.  I would like to thank everyone for attending this hearing.  

The purpose of today’s hearing is to explore how we can best serve our veterans who have sustained severe physical wounds from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Today, we will closely examine VA’s specialized services for the severely injured, which include blind rehabilitation, spinal cord injury centers, polytrauma centers, and prosthetics and sensory aids services. 

With advances in protective body armor and combat medicine, our servicemembers are surviving war wounds which otherwise would have resulted in casualties.  Many servicemembers who are severely injured in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) will require sophisticated, comprehensive, and often lifelong care.  We know that blast injuries from improvised explosive devices are the most common causes of injury and death among our OEF and OIF servicemembers.  Blast injuries often include combinations of TBI, blindness, spinal cord injuries, severe burns, and damage to the limbs which results in amputations.  

Today, we will examine whether VA is meeting the needs of the severely injured and whether veterans have access to the most current therapies for treating their physical war injuries.  We will identify what VA is doing well and what areas are in need of improvement.  We will also explore how VA ensures that the quality of care is consistent and standardized across the VA health care system so that veteran receive the same high quality care regardless of which VA facility they visit.  Finally, we will review VA’s current efforts to coordinate specialized services for the severely injured with the DoD and how we can achieve improved coordination between the two departments.

I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today.