The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center' (WRNMMC), was formerly known as the National Naval Medical Center and the "Walter Reed Army Medical Center" is the United States' top tri-service military medical center, located in the community of Bethesda, Maryland, near the headquarters of the National Institutes of Health. It is one of the most prominent U.S. military medical centers in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and the United States, having served numerous U.S. presidents since the 20th century.
In 2011, the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), named after yellow fever researcher Walter Reed, and the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) were combined to form the tri-service Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
History as the Walter Reed Army Medical Center This article is about the U.S. Army medical center in use until August 27, 2011. For the research institute, see Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. For other uses, see Walter Reed (disambiguation).
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Active May 1, 1909 â€" August 27, 2011 Country  United States of America Branch  United States Army Type Hospital Role Militarized healthcare Motto(s) "We Provide Warrior Care" Notable commanders LTG Kevin C. Kiley (2002â€"June 2004; March 1â€"2, 2007) MG Kenneth L. Farmer Jr. (June 2004â€"Aug. 25, 2006) MG. George W. Weightman (Aug. 25, 2006â€"March 1, 2007) Walter Reed Army Medical Center Walter Reed Health Care System
The WRAMC Distinctive Unit Insignia Geography Location 6900 Georgia Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., United States Coordinates 38°58′30″N 77°01′48″W Coordinates: 38°58′30″N 77°01′48″W Organization Care system Military Hospital type General History Founded May 1, 1909 Links Website Walter Reed National Military Center Lists Hospitals in Washington, D.C. The Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) â€" known as Walter Reed General Hospital (WRGH) until 1951 â€" was the U.S. Army's flagship medical center from 1909 to 2011. Located on 113 acres (46 ha) in Washington, D.C., it served more than 150,000 active and retired personnel from all branches of the military. The center was named after Major Walter Reed (1851â€"1902), an army physician who led the team that confirmed that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes rather than direct contact. Since its origins, the WRAMC medical care facility grew from a bed capacity of 80 patients to approximately 5,500 rooms covering more than 28 acres (11 ha) of floor space. WRAMC combined with the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Maryland in 2011 to form the tri-service Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC).
Contents  [hide] 1 History 1.1 Origins at Fort McNair 1.2 Walter Reed General Hospital and WRAMC 1.3 2007 neglect scandal 1.4 2005 BRAC recommendation and 2011 closure 2 Notable people who died at WRGH or WRAMC 3 Tenants 4 Commanding officers 4.1 Walter Reed Army Medical Center[18] 4.2 The Army Medical Center[19] 4.3 Walter Reed General Hospital[19] 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links
History[edit] Origins at Fort McNair[edit] Fort Lesley J. McNair, located in southwest Washington, D.C. on land set aside by George Washington as a military reservation, is the third oldest U.S. Army installation in continuous use in the United States after West Point and Carlisle Barracks. Its position at the confluence of the Anacostia River and the Potomac River made it an excellent site for the defense of the nation's capital. Dating back to 1791, the post served as an arsenal, played an important role in the nation's defense, and housed the first U.S. Federal Penitentiary from 1839 to 1862. Today, Fort McNair enjoys a strong tradition as the intellectual headquarters for defense. Furthermore, with unparalleled vistas of the picturesque waterfront and the opposing Virginia shoreline, the historic health clinic at Fort McNair, the precursor of today's Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), overlooks the residences of top officials who choose the famed facility for the delivery of their health care needs. "Walter Reed's Clinic," the location of the present day health clinic at Washington D.C., occupies what was from 1898 until 1909 the General Hospital at what was then Washington Barracks, long before the post was renamed in honor of Lt. Gen. McNair who was killed in 1944. The hospital served as the forerunner of Walter Reed General Hospital; however, the Victorian era waterfront dispensary remains and is perhaps one of America's most historically significant military medical treatment facilities. It is reported that Walter Reed lived and worked in the facility when he was assigned as Camp Surgeon from 1881 to 1882. After having served on other assignments, he returned as Professor of Medicine and Curator of the Army Medical Museum. Some of his epidemiological work included studies at Washington Barracks, and he is best known for discovering the transmission of yellow fever. In 1902, Major Reed underwent emergency surgery here for appendicitis and died of complications in this U.S. Army Medical Treatment Facility (MTF), within the very walls of what became his final military duty assignment.[1] Regarding the structure itself, since the 1890s the health clinic was used as an Army General Hospital where physicians, corpsmen and nurses were trained in military health care. In 1899, the morgue was constructed which now houses the Dental Clinic, and in 1901 the hospital became an entirely separate command. This new organizational command relocated eight years later with the aide of horse-drawn wagons and an experimental steam driven ambulance in 1909. Departing from the 50-bed hospital, as documented in The Army Nursing Newsletter, Volume 99, Issue 2, February 2000,[2] they set out due north transporting with them 11 patients initially to the new 65-bed facility in the northern aspect of the capital. Having departed Ft. McNair, the organization has since developed into the Walter Reed Army Medical Center that we know today. As for the facility they left behind at Fort McNair, it functioned in a smaller role as a post hospital until 1911 when the west wing was converted into a clinic. Walter Reed General Hospital and WRAMC[edit] Congressional legislation appropriated $192,000 for the construction of Walter Reed General Hospital[3] (WRGH, now known as "Building 1"), and the first ten patients were admitted on May 1, 1909. Lieutenant Colonel William Cline Borden was the initiator, planner and effective mover for the creation, location, and first Congressional support of the Medical Center. Due to his efforts, the facility was nicknamed "Borden's Dream."[4] In 1923, General John J. Pershing signed the War Department order creating the "Army Medical Center" (AMC) within the same campus as the WRGH. (At this time, the Army Medical School was relocated from 604 Louisiana Avenue and became the "Medical Department Professional Service School" (MDPSS) in the new Building 40.) Pershing lived at Walter Reed from 1944 until his death there July 15, 1948.
The Walter Reed General Hospital (main building with cupola in distance at far left) in September, 1919. The WRGH was the precursor to WRAMC. In September 1951, "General Order Number 8" combined the WRGH with the AMC, and the entire complex of 100 rose-brick Georgian Revival style buildings was at that time renamed the "Walter Reed Army Medical Center" (WRAMC). In June 1955, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) occupied the new Building 54 and, in November, what had been MDPSS was renamed the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR). 1964 saw the birth of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing (WRAIN). Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower died at WRAMC on March 28, 1969. Starting in 1972, a huge new WRAMC building (Building 2) was constructed and made ready for occupation by 1977. WRAIR moved from Building 40 to a large new facility on the WRAMC Forest Glen Annex in Maryland in 1999. Subsequently, Building 40 was slated for renovation under an enhanced use lease by a private developer. In 2007, the University of Pennsylvania and WRAMC established a partnership whereby proton therapy technology would be available to treat United States military personnel and veterans in the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine's new Roberts Proton Therapy Center.[5][6]
Early history
In 1938, the United States Congress appropriated funds for the acquisition of land for the construction of a new Naval medical center, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt selected the present site in Bethesda, Maryland, on July 5, 1938.
Ground was broken by John McShain Builders for the Naval Medical Center on June 29, 1939 by Rear Admiral Percival S. Rossiter, MC, USN, (Ret.). President Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the Tower on Armistice Day, November 11, 1940.
The original Medical Center was composed of the Naval Hospital, designed to hold 1,200 beds, and the Naval Medical School, the Naval Dental School (now the National Naval Dental Center) and the Naval Medical Research Institute. In 1945, at the end of World War II, temporary buildings were added to accommodate up to 2,464 wounded American sailors and marines.
Kennedy assassination
In November 1963, the autopsy of U.S. President John F. Kennedy was performed at Bethesda. On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was shot and killed while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas with his wife, Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and his wife, Nellie. The wounded president was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Parkland doctors and local coroner insisted that they perform the autopsy, since he had been murdered in Dallas County. However, with concern for the security of the new president, Lyndon B. Johnson, the Secret Service demanded that the assassinated president's body would be taken to Washington, D.C. immediately aboard Air Force One.
U.S. Presidential visits to NNMC
Franklin D. Roosevelt selected the site of the hospital, laid the cornerstone, and made formal dedication remarks at the hospitals opening on November 11, 1940.
When NNMC was dedicated in 1942, its original intention was to provide medical care to military personnel only. But since Franklin D. Roosevelt had paralysis of his lower extremities, the medical center immediately offered to provide the President with any medicine or treatment necessary to keep him physically fit for the presidency. With that, an official White House doctor was appointed by the President to sort out medical issues with him. Since FDR, most presidents have used a military hospital close to Washington, D.C., either Bethesda or Walter Reed AMC, as the primary facility for them and their immediate family to receive medical care. Each president pays for any of his medical expenses personally.
Ronald Reagan, on July 13, 1985, underwent surgery to remove polyps from his colon. He sent a letter transferring power to thenâ€"Vice President George H. W. Bush, deliberately invoking the Acting President clause of the 25th Amendment, and on January 5, 1987, Reagan underwent surgery for prostate cancer which caused further worries about his health. At this time, Reagan was 76 years old.
First Lady Nancy Reagan, on October 17, 1987, underwent a mastectomy due to breast cancer.
Modernization
In August 1960, a $5.6 million expansion project was initiated and consisted of two five-story wings attached to the main building's east side. Completed in the summer of 1963, Buildings 7 and 8 provided space for 258 beds and replaced the World War II temporary ward buildings.
In January 1973, the mission of the Naval Medical Center was modified to include the provision: "to provide coordinated dispensary health care services as an integral element of the Naval Regional Health Care System, including shore activities, as may be assigned." This change established the National Naval Medical Center Region and placed all naval health care facilities within the Naval District Washington under the authority of the commanding officer of the Medical Center.
The new inpatient buildings and the Naval Medical Center were consolidated into one command on September 1, 1973, to form National Naval Medical Center. In 1975, an extensive renovation began which included the construction of two new buildings: Building 9, a three-story outpatient structure, and Building 10, a seven-story, 500 bed inpatient facility, with a combined area of more than 880,000 square feet (82,000 m²).
In 1979, the remaining temporary buildings were replaced with a multi-level staff-parking garage. This addition made National Naval Medical Center one of the largest medical facilities in the country. The original Naval Medical Center tower was since listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Lawsuits
In early 1994, after two unsuccessful operations following strokes, Dr. Milton Wittman, DSW, a nationally acclaimed administrator and pioneer of public mental-health services in the National Association of Social Workers and the National Institute of Mental Health, had to have both his legs amputated due to casts being improperly casted on his legs. Wittman's family, specifically his sons Dr. Friedner Wittman of UC Berkeley and Peretz Wittman, sued Bethesda Naval Hospital for gross malpractice. The lawsuit was dragged out in court, and after some time, the United States Navy paid over $500,000 to Wittman, mostly covering the end-of-life treatment Wittman would then need, due to the malpractice by the doctors.
History as the WRNMMC (2005â€"present)
Facility merger
In accordance with the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure recommendations, an Office of Integration (OI) was formed in November 2005 to oversee the merger of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) and the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC). That merged facility was to be staffed by Army, Navy, and Air Force medical personnel and become the core of an integrated military medicine system in the National Capital Region (NCR). What in 2005 were three medical centers, a small community hospital, and 19 clinics offering medical care to military beneficiaries in the NCR was to become, with oversight of the OI, a single tri-service medical center, a large tri-service hospital in Northern Virginia, and 20 area clinics.
Construction and cost overruns
Groundbreaking took place on July 3, 2008, with President George W. Bush officiating.
The goal of the merger was for the government to ultimately spend less maintaining a new building than an old one. It was estimated that the new facility would cost about $172 million less to manage each year. The original 2005 estimate of the cost of shutting down WRAMC, and shifting it across town to Bethesda, and other locations, was "just under $900 million" according to Brian Lepore of the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The "payback period" â€" i.e., the point after which the full amount of the investment will have been recouped and at which savings actually commence â€" was to have started in 2011. But the relocation cost unexpectedly rose by 245% between the original 2005 projection and the 2011 opening. Instead of under $900 million, it turned out to be about triple that at $2.7 billion. Thus the payback period is expected to begin about seven years late, around 2018. One reason costs skyrocketed was that construction costs went up, partly due to a huge amount of building materials being sent to the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. According to Todd Harrison, a defense analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, in 2005, "when they made their initial estimates of what it would cost … they did their best estimate …. A lot of things have changed since then. Construction costs have gone up." The GAO agrees that the WRNMMC project tripled in price mostly because of a rise in construction costs.
The NNMC was rechristened Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on September 14, 2011, combining the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center with the Nstional Naval Medical Center.
Current operations
WRNMMC serves as the location of the headquarters for Joint Task Force National Capital Region/Medical, a tri-service task force providing command and control for most medical treatment facilities in the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New Jersey. The WRNMMC continues to provide all the services it provided as NNMC and WRAMC. In September 2013, a ceremony placed U.S. Army Major General Jeff Clark as the commander of Walter Reed National Military Medical Centerâ€"Bethesda.
External links
- Official website
- DoD Lodging Worldwide
- Navy Lodge Bethesda
- National Naval Medical Center at the Wayback Machine (archived September 26, 2002)
- Bethesda Naval Hospital Tower, Montgomery County, including photo in 1975, at Maryland Historical Trust website
