Panel puts hospital on the ropes

WASHINGTON — A top-level Pentagon review panel has concluded that Walter Reed Army Medical Center should be closed as soon as possible, following revelations of poor care that the panel blamed on a “perfect storm” of failed leadership, flawed policies and overwhelming casualties.

In a preliminary report released Wednesday, the panel appointed by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates recommended accelerating the closure of the Washington hospital. Under decisions made two years ago, the facilities were due to move to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., by 2011.

A faster move could mean speeding up or waiving an environmental review and releasing money to break ground on a $2-billion expansion at Bethesda, according to the draft report from the Independent Review Group. Construction of a larger Army hospital at Ft. Belvoir in Virginia also should be expedited, the report said.

The Navy is preparing a draft environmental study for the Bethesda plan, which would include a large addition on the north side of the hospital.

“It needs to be built, and it needs to be built as quickly as possible,” said review panel member John J.H. Schwarz, a physician and former GOP congressman from Michigan.

Even as they urged a speedy shutdown, members of the Pentagon group called for the immediate investment of hundreds of millions of dollars at Walter Reed for short-term infrastructure improvements and to address shortages of nurses and other medical personnel.

“Keep Walter Reed going fully funded -- no dying on the vine -- right up to the moment they are ready to turn the key” at Bethesda, said John O. Marsh Jr., a co-chairman who was secretary of the Army under President Reagan.

The nine-member review board was established by Gates after the Washington Post reported in February about decrepit conditions at some Walter Reed facilities and shoddy outpatient treatment of wounded troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. The revelations led to the abrupt resignations of Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey and top Army Medical Corps officers.

Togo West, secretary of the Army under President Clinton and co-chairman of the review panel, lambasted Walter Reed during a public meeting Wednesday, saying that though the primary medical care was generally first rate, patients perceived an “almost palpable disdain” among the staff for the need to provide support during outpatient treatment.