AFRH is an independent establishment of the Executive Branch of the Federal government that oversees two Continuing Care Retirement Community campuses for qualified veterans, one in Washington D.C., the other in Gulfport, Mississippi. But the Gulfport campus is not currently in operation, having been decimated by Hurricane Katrina. It is scheduled to be rebuilt and opened again in 2010. In 2005, controversy about AFRH erupted when a group of veterans living at the Washington D.C. campus filed a class-action lawsuit claiming that continuing budget cuts there were affecting the quality of health care. The suit was initially dismissed, but the dismissal was overturned, and the case is now set to be heard in a U.S. District Court.
The National Defense Authorization Act of 2002 provided for a permanent change in the home’s management structure. The traditional governing board was abolished and replaced by a Chief Operating Officer to be chosen by the Secretary of Defense. Since that time, the AFRH workforce has been cut almost in half and the operating budget reduced by about $20 million.
In 1811, with the promise of caring for the military aging, infirm, and financially strapped, a charter was passed to establish a place to live in Philadelphia for Navy officers, sailors, and Marines. Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton led the efforts to bring it about, and it opened in 1834. Seventeen years later, a home in Washington D.C. was created for old and disabled soldiers. Then in the late 1960s, when it was determined the Philadelphia facility could not be economically modernized and expanded, the Naval home was moved to Gulfport, Mississippi. In 1991 Congress passed a law incorporating the two campuses into an independent establishment in the Executive Branch of the Federal government, under the umbrella of AFRH.
But in 2005 Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulfport campus, and it had to be closed. Many of its residents were transferred to the D.C. home, and Congress provided supplemental funding so it can be rebuilt by 2010.
AFRH provides independent living, assisted living, and long-term care services in a community setting for qualified veterans. The only Continuing Care Retirement Community in the federal government, AFRH also operates a health and dental clinic for residents; provides an orderly transition when needed from independent living to assisted living or nursing care; serves meals; and offers a variety of other services, activities and recreation facilities, including a golf course and driving range, fitness room, banking center, post office, bowling alley, fishing ponds, auto shop, library, hair salon, theater, and bus tours to area attractions. Receiving no annual budget appropriation from Congress, AFRH is financed by a trust fund ($159 million at the end of 2007) made up of the 50 cent per month payroll deductions of active duty military personnel, fines and forfeitures from Armed Forces disciplinary actions, resident fees, and investment income from low-yield Treasury Bonds, with Federal law prohibiting AFRH from soliciting contributions, applying for grants, or running capital fundraising campaigns.
In 2007, there were 1,123 residents at the Washington D.C. campus.
From the Website of AFRH
Some Resident Stories
Funding Cuts Threaten Quality of Care
In 2005 a group of residents at the Washington D.C. campus filed a lawsuit, still to be heard, on behalf of everyone living there, against AFHR’s Chief Operating Officer Timothy Cox and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, claiming that funding cuts at the facility have caused neglect in the medical care they receive.
Medical Employees Complain of Poor Conditions
In 2007 medical employees of the Washington D.C. home contacted the GAO with complaints that there were a variety of improper health conditions occurring there, including rooms spattered with blood, urine and feces, and patients with unusually severe pressure sores, as well as a rising death rate. However, a Defense Department inspection team, after interviewing doctors, nurses, and patients, reported that they could not substantiate the medical employees’ allegations. It did call for improvements in record-keeping methodology and processing as well as appointment scheduling and overall communication.
Pentagon Is Probing Veterans Home: Increased Deaths, Grim Conditions Reported by GAO
(by Steve Vogel and Michael E. Ruane, Washington Post)
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Founded: 1811
Annual Budget: $56,524,000
Employees: 300
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Armed Forces Retirement Home
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Cox, Timothy
Chief Operating Officer
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Timothy Cox, was named chief operating officer of the Armed Forces Retirement Home by Donald Rumsfeld on August 12, 2002. Cox received a BA from Bucknell in Lewisburg, PA, and a JD from Widener University in Wilmington, Delaware. Prior to becoming AFRH COO, Cox was senior vice-president of Operation Services at Sunrise Senior Living, which operates more than 440 assisted living homes in four countries. Cox has been embroiled in controversy ever since over the ways he has chosen to cut costs, from cutting staff to restructuring medical services and programs, to his choices on avenues to explore for expansion of the site to his raising the idea of seeking new routes for financing. Cox is also a member of the board of directors of Cultural Tourism D.C.
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