Casscells Plans to Leave In April

I've learned that Casscells, who told me a year ago that Military Health System clinicians found AHLTA "intolerable" plans to end his tour as the Defense "Top Doc" at the end of April.

His departure date, I'm told, still needs approval by top Defense managers.

This will leave Washington with one less person out of the handful of people who speak the unvarnished truth. His departure also will leave MHS absent a leader who admires and respects field medics and corpsmen.

Cascells ensured he had a personal view of patient care by doing rounds at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center as often as possible.

No word yet on whether Defense has found a replacement.