FALLS CHURCH, Virginia (InvestigateTV) — When military doctors are disciplined or lose a malpractice case, the agency that oversees healthcare for service members and their families is required by federal law to keep their names confidential, a top official said.
But given those restraints, the Defense Health Agency is as transparent as possible, Dr. Paul Cordts told InvestigateTV in a rare interview.
“I think we’ve been very aggressive about being transparent,” Cordts said.
Since 2022, InvestigateTV has been documenting the lack of transparency in the military healthcare system, raising questions about the quality of care provided to those who serve, as well as the nearly $1 billion in taxpayer money that’s been paid out in the last 15 years as a result of malpractice claims or lawsuits filed when people are severely hurt or killed at the hands of military providers.
Those cases include a Maryland baby left with a permanent brain injury after what was supposed to be a routine cochlear ear implant at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland and a 23-year-old who died after shoulder surgery at Bush Naval Hospital in California.
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After fighting InvestigateTV’s numerous Freedom of Information Act requests for nearly two years, failing to provide basic information about data related to problematic military medical providers, and avoiding on-camera questioning, the Defense Health Agency finally agreed to make Cordts available for an interview. (Watch the entire video below)
“My heart breaks for patients who have had complications and unintended outcomes as the result of our care,” Cordts said.
Long before taking on the role of chief medical officer for the agency tasked with overseeing healthcare for thousands of service members and their families, Cordts was a physician climbing the ranks of the Army.
He’s taken on leadership roles at every level of military medicine. Before retiring from active-duty service in 2014, Cordts served as the director of the general surgery program at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii, hospital commander at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, and health policy director for the Office of the Surgeon General for the Army.
Cordts’ current role is the chief medical officer of the Defense Health Agency.
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That’s why on a Friday morning in June, InvestigateTV was allowed behind the security gates of the agency headquarters in Virginia to try to get answers to the questions we’ve been raising for years about healthcare providers who have been found negligent in malpractice cases.
We repeatedly questioned Cordts about patients in the military health system being left in the dark about problematic providers who have been disciplined or involved in malpractice payout cases. He said they follow federal regulations, being as transparent as permitted by law, citing federal code that limits the information the loved ones of those harmed could potentially obtain.
“This piece about transparency is near and dear to my heart. Being transparent with the patients - we can certainly think through - not that more can’t be done necessarily - but I think we’ve been very forthcoming with respect to the information that we have made available to patients,” Cordts said, “These kinds of events are heartbreaking. And to the extent that we can be transparent with our patients, we should be. And I believe that we are.”
But some families have had to fight for years to obtain the answer to the most basic question: What happened?
Suzi Way, whose Navy corpsman son died in 2017 after a routine shoulder surgery, had to fight the military for information about the events leading up to his death – filing multiple Freedom of Information Act requests and enlisting the help of Congressional representatives to obtain materials including the investigative file from the Navy.
InvestigateTV asked Cordts repeatedly about the lack of transparency in military healthcare that runs counter to the civilian world – where malpractice payouts and disciplinary action taken against providers is often a matter of public record, reported by state medical board websites.
He emphasized the agency does report its actions to state medical boards as well, but InvestigateTV’s examination of medical board disciplinary actions across the nation found almost no evidence of that reporting making its way into the public sphere.
Although our investigation uncovered nearly 500 reports of military providers to the confidential National Practitioner Data Bank between 2018-2022, the Defense Health Agency keeps the names of those individuals under wraps, with Cordts citing federal law that prohibits the release of that information.
Cordts pointed to the Defense Health Agency’s own website as well as third-party sites detailing achievements as evidence of the organization’s transparency. The sites detail ratings given to specific military medical facilities and clinics, patient survey results, and statistics related to harm and deaths. But the website does not provide any specifics about a medical provider’s history that could be used by service members or their dependents to make decisions about their care. In the civilian world, that information could typically be found on state medical board websites.
What the Defense Health Agency labeled as its “Transparency Hub” in a recent press release is hardly clear, with no data found about adverse events at some locations as well as outdated news releases, reports and policies on the home page.
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The most recent post on the Defense Health Agency’s page highlights high safety grades given to just nine military hospitals, something Cordts cited during our interview along with the consistent recognition received by just a handful of facilities by the American College of Surgeons.
When repeatedly pressed about the basic data InvestigateTV obtained from the agency, detailing the number of providers on the other end of the spectrum - those involved in discipline - Cordts was far more elusive, saying, “We deliver excellent, safe, high-quality care and every patient is important to us.”
Cordts says the Defense Health Agency’s goal is zero harm. To achieve that, he says the agency conducts thorough root cause analyses following incidents involving serious injuries and deaths. He also said they use data analysis to look for trends across the military system and then create policies designed to improve healthcare quality overall.
“We insist on high-quality safe care. And so, we will continue to deliver on that promise. Our patients deserve it. I’m one of them. Whether I was one of them or not, they deserve the highest quality, safest care that can be delivered anywhere in the world. And that’s my commitment and our commitment to make that happen,” Cordts said.
InvestigateTV is continuing its reporting on military malpractice. If you or a loved one has experienced harm at the hands of a military provider, or if you have information for our team, please complete the survey below and help us with the next installment of Doctors of Defense.
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