Medical centers’ care under review

[Guest guest]

Medical centers' care under review

By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes

European edition, Thursday, February 22, 2007

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104 & article=43763

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Army and Navy will review medical care and

living conditions at Walter Army Medical Center in Washington

and the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Md., according to

the Defense Department.

The move comes after The Washington Post ran a series of articles

beginning Sunday, exposing substandard living conditions at Walter

.

Walter 's Building 18, which houses 76 soldiers recovering from

war wounds, was found to have mold, water damage, mice and elevator

outages, according to the Post.

In addition to the Army and Navy reviews, an independent panel will

look at outpatient care and administrative issues at the two

hospitals and report back to Defense Secretary Gates within

45 days of its formation, officials said.

The review will focus primarily on Walter , but it will include

the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., because of " a

couple of anecdotes " that have been reported about servicemembers'

experiences there, said Dr. Winkenwerder, assistant defense

secretary for health affairs.

If needed, the independent panel will look at other hospitals, but

for right now the review will focus on Walter and Bethesda

because the two hospitals handle the majority of returning wounded

servicemembers, Winkenwerder said.

" I'm also informed by the Chief of Naval Operations that he has

directed an inspector general review to make sure there are no other

issues at any Navy facilities, " Winkenwerder said. " We don't have

any indications of that, no concerns no complaints, no data that

would suggest that. "

Asked if the Inspector General's office would look at all Navy

facilities, Winkenwerder said he understood that the review would

focus on Bethesda.

Also Wednesday, Gen. Cody, Army vice chief of staff,

attributed the problems at Walter to a " breakdown in

leadership " and said bureaucracy " bogged down a speedy solution to

these problems. "

Cody said some of the people in charge of Building 18 did not have

the appropriate rank or experience to do their jobs, but he refused

to say who was at fault for the conditions reported by the media.

" I'll take responsibility for this and I'll make sure that it's

fixed, " Cody said.

Cody also said he has met with people at the level where leadership

broke down and " the appropriate actions have been taken, " but so far

no one has been fired or relieved of command.

" We will do the right thing across the board as we continue to

assess where the leadership failure and breakdowns were, " he said.

Correction

Stars and Stripes

Mideast edition, Friday, February 23, 2007

A Feb. 22 story on conditions at Walter Army Medical Center

should have said The Washington Post reported mold, water damage,

mice and elevator outages at the facilities.

Clafication

A photo caption on the Feb. 21 front page should have said Marine

Warrant Officer 1 is a civil affairs officer.