This supplementary letter—perhaps it did not reach you all—was not as susceptible of misinterpretation as General Order No. 26–A. The needs of the patients about to be discharged with reference to after-care out-patient treatment, etc., are not matters which should take long to determine; feasibility for training is also a matter capable of prompt determination; eligibility or the right of a patient for training is a matter that can be handled either before or after a patient’s discharge has been effected, and the necessary adjustments or re-adjustments of matters relating to compensation, while necessary of establishment before discharge from hospital do not require that such patients must remain in hospital until actually in receipt of compensation. It simply means that the important steps leading up to this action should be properly gotten under way, and having done this, the completion of the compensation status can be as readily carried out after discharge as before. Notwithstanding the supplementary instructions following General Order No. 26 still further conflict regarding the application of the two orders in question in the District offices and in the hospitals was apparent from reports received in the Central Office, and it was decided to insert a further explanatory notice in the U. S. Veterans’ Bureau Field Letter No. 20, of December 24, 1921. This notice was as follows:
Judging from letters that have reached the Bureau, there has been some confusion with regard to the exact intent expressed in General Orders Nos. 26 and 26–A.
Rightly interpreted, these orders are in no wise contradictory.
The intent of General Order No. 26–A is fivefold, namely:
(1) To determine the eligibility of claimants for vocational training.
(2) To determine their feasibility for training.
(3) To arrange for training when eligibility and feasibility are established.
(4) To accomplish everything necessary to adjudicate claims.
(5) Provision for outpatient treatment when required.
“All of these matters ought to be attended to before the patient leaves the hospital, and with close co-operation and efficient administration, both in the field and in the Bureau, this can be done, and of course must be done without keeping the patient in the hospital after his treatment is completed. Manifestly there is only one way to accomplish this, and that is, to anticipate the discharge of the patient a sufficient length of time in advance to provide for these objects.”