'Change Is Hard': Army, Navy Hospitals Merge (NPR mentions FR)

NPR ^ | 9/2/11 | Joseph Shapiro

[Drango]

September 2, 2011

There's a lot of good sense behind closing two famous and nearby military hospitals and merging them into the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. But just looking at the name reveals both what's good about this merger and what makes it so tricky.

Walter Reed was a famous Army doctor, and for more than a century his name was on the Army's iconic hospital in Washington, D.C. Now that hospital is shutting its doors, and Reed's name will go onto the new hospital built on the Navy's flagship medical campus in Bethesda, Md., 6 miles away.

It's a bit like merging the Yankees and the Red Sox and then making them play in "Derek Jeter Fenway Park." Yankees fans and Red Sox Nation would never go for it — but it might make a great baseball team.

That's the sort of potential behind the new, jointly operated Army and Navy hospital. With bright new buildings and the latest technology, the new hospital promises better care to service members, veterans and injured troops from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But the Army and Navy each have their own proud traditions. So bridging those separate, and often competing, cultures will be the key to truly offering better medical care.

A 'World-Class Standard' Of Care?

The possibilities of the merger are clear when Cmdr. Blair Miles gives a tour of one of the spacious new operating suits. The scanners and computers are attached to long booms that extend down from the ceiling.

"This is going to be the neuro room," Miles says. "It's a hybrid room, and it's a biplane room, so that's why you see the two C-arms." That's a lot of jargon for the new equipment here. The point is: This operating room has all of the latest technology.

~SNIP (go to the link

[trooprally]

I am sure there will be conflicts. Even when merging two similar parts this large there are problems, I can imaging top brass from different services trying to be top dog.

[Mr] T

[MSF BU]

I hope not, but if they are, rest assured that the Navy and Coast Guard will lead the way on sodomy oriented periodicals: flame away folks.

[MSF BU]

I agree with you 100% as regards waste. I’d looks at the daycare centers, the military policty regarding housing and pregnant service members as direct policies that waste money. We have privates showing up having just recently married a gal with three kids...Bingo!: he’s out of the barracks and we are on the hook for medical & housing for a new family of five. We have an HIV positive member and now he’s retained instead of being discharged. The waste is abominable, I agree. Oh for the days when soldiers had to ask permission to get married.

[Brown Deer]

NPR is still socialist pigs but kudos for having a photo of FReepers

[gogogodzilla]

My biggest complaint about Walter Reed were that they did not mesh well with the Tricare appiontment system, so every appointment I made through Tricare for Walter Reed... was not in their system. I eventually had to give up and go to Bethesda (which does have better service).

And the other complaint was it’s location. The medical facility at Andrews is the easiest of the (formerly) three medical facilities in the Washington area. Bethesda’s not as easy, but Walter Reed... geez, there was no good way to get to it from anywhere outside of Washington, D.C. itself.

[gogogodzilla]

It’ll be:

Medic! Get your @ss on deck!

[trooprally]

Understood that the administration department at Walter Reed was screwed up, but as far as treatment for our wounded warriors, treatment was excellent.

If you think access to Walter Reed was hard, Bethesda will be worst. They already have parking problems on base and the local roads are insufficient to handle the extra traffic. At least at WR one can park on the residential side streets.

I highly recommend taking Metro to Bethesda if you go there. I believe there is an internal shuttle bus but it could be only during construction.

[Mr] T