Dr. Margaret Hammond

Dr. Margaret Hammond, chief consultant of the Spinal Cord Injury and Disorders program, kick started the workshop with an overview of the VA's SCI &D programs. She spoke about the mission of the program, which is to promote health, independence, quality of life, and productivity throughout the lives of people with SCI. Dr. Hammond explained the structural organization of the program as a Hub and Spokes System; where the hub represents full service providers who handle primary and specialty care, while the spokes represented primary care teams comprised of physician, nurses and social workers. There are 23 SCI centers and 135 SCI Primary Care Teams across USA. She discussed the services provided by the SCI&D program, which range from acute care, rehabilitation, preventive care, sustaining care, extended care, and end of life care. Dr. Hammond also discussed the research being conducted and current technology being used by the program.

The speakers at the workshop were: Graham Creasey, MD (Cleveland VA), William Bauman, MD (VA Bronx), Michael Boninger, MD (HERL Medical Director), Marca Sipski, MD (VA Miami), Margaret Hammond, MD (Chief Consultant to VA for SCI, Seattle).

The following day we reconvened to our keynote speaker, VA Spinal Cord Injury & Disorders Strategic Health Care Group, Chief Consultant Dr. Margaret Hammond.Dr. Hammond reported on the status of the various construction projects throughout the VA system as well as the direction the VA Specialized Services such as SCI/D is heading and what to expect in the future.

The team members are Associate General Counsel Renée Szybala and Margaret Hammond, MD, chief consultant for the Spinal Cord Injury and Disorders Service within the Office of Patient Care Services at the Puget Sound VA Health Care System and professor at the University of Washington.

NAVREF members will recall that last November Acting General Counsel Paul Hutter and Acting Under Secretary for Health Michael Kussman, MD, ordered the review which was conducted by Associate General Counsel Renee Szybala and Margaret Hammond, MD, chief consultant for the Spinal Cord Injury and Disorders Service within the Office of Patient Care Services at the Puget Sound VA Health Care System and professor at the University of Washington.
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NAVREF greatly appreciates the commitment of Dr. Kussman and Mr. Hutter and their staffs to work together to improve VA technology transfer program functions and the extraordinary effort Ms. Szybala and Dr. Hammond put into their review.
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1. Attached is the Decision Memorandum that documents the decision of the Acting General Counsel and Acting Under Secretary for Health to adopt the recommendations of the review conducted by Dr. Margaret Hammond and Renée L. Szybala of the working relationship between VHA's Technology Transfer Program (TTP) and Professional Staff Group IV (PSG IV). (I've also included a copy of the cover memo from Paul Hutter to Dr. Kussman.) On December 15, 2006, Dr. Hammond and Ms. Szybala reported their findings and recommendations to OGC and VHA management.
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1. Attached is the Decision Memorandum that documents the decision of the Acting General Counsel and Acting Under Secretary for Health to adopt the recommendations of the review conducted by Dr. Margaret Hammond and Renée L. Szybala of the working relationship between VHA's Technology Transfer Program (TTP) and Professional Staff Group IV (PSG IV). (I've also included a copy of the cover memo from Paul Hutter to Dr. Kussman.) On December 15, 2006, Dr. Hammond and Ms. Szybala reported their findings and recommendations to OGC and VHA management.

Margaret Hammond, M.D., chief consultant, Spinal Cord Injury & Disorders Strategic Health Care Group, will speak on Thursday, July 29 at 9 a.m.

Other guest speakers include Dr. Margaret Hammond, VA chief consultant, spinal cord injury and disorders, strategic health-care group on Wednesday, July 31 at 9 a.m. and Dr. Robert C. Roswell, VA undersecretary for health on Thursday, Aug. 1 at 9 a.m.

During the past year, PVA worked closely with Dr. Margaret Hammond, VA Chief Consultant for Spinal Cord Injury and Disorders Health Group, to gather the data needed by senior VA leadership to assess the extent of the problems.

Using VA and PVA data, Dr. Hammond identified the additional resources needed to restore the SCI system to its previous state as the premier SCI service in the world.Dr. Hammond presented her plan to Secretary West and Under Secretary Garthwaite in December 1999.VA's speedy approval of the plan reflects the importance Secretary West and Under Secretary Garthwaite place on the SCI program, Townsend said.

Under the plan, the VA will hire nearly 400 additional health-care staff, return hundreds of acute beds to service, and add much needed long-term care beds.

VA's SCI program is unique in its ability to provide lifelong specialized health-care services - from acute through sustaining and long-term care - for veterans with spinal cord dysfunction.