Walter Reed Military Hospital

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Clinic in Bethesda, 2011
coat of arms
War invalids of the First World War in the Walter Reed Hospital
Panorama of the buildings in Washington, 1919

The Walter Reed Army Medical Center ( Walter Reed National Military Medical Center , WRNMMC ; formerly Walter Reed Army Medical Center , WRAMC ) is a military hospital on the East Coast of the United States . It is now located in Bethesda , Maryland and serves soldiers and veterans from all military backgrounds .

The center is named after Major Walter Reed (1851–1902), a military doctor who was best known for research on yellow fever . Historically, it is closely linked to Fort Lesley J. McNair in southwest Washington, DC , the third oldest military facility in the United States alongside West Point and the Carlisle Barracks . In addition to the care of soldiers, it was also used for the medical treatment of celebrities, especially politicians , who often lived in the neighboring villa district. Among others Lewis Baxter threshold brook and George C. Marshalldied there, Colin Powell was operated on while serving as Secretary of State. It was also Donald Trump during his presidency in 2020 due to infection with the coronavirus treated there.

story

The hospital was built as Walter Reed General Hospital in 1909 on an open space north of Washington, DC (now The Parks Historical Walter Reed ). The main building only had space for 80 patients. During the First World War it was hastily expanded, and towards the end of the war and during the flu epidemic that followed, up to 2,500 patients could be treated simultaneously in the barracks. The facility continued to grow during World War II, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and finally reached the maximum number of 5500 beds on an area of ​​11 hectares. A total of around 750,000 patients were treated in Washington.

2007 supply scandal

In 2007, The Washington Post published a 10-part series of articles about scandalous conditions in the hospital. The authors Dana Priest and Anne Hull and the photographer Michel du Cille had covertly researched and uncovered severe undersupply, which would also have caused preventable deaths among patients. The Post described the enormous bureaucratic hurdles injured and sick military personnel had to overcome in order to receive treatment at the WRAMC. Other articles focused on understaffing and structural deficiencies. Above all, the reporters found building 18, a former hotel outside the actual hospital complex, contaminated with rats and cockroaches, mattresses were moldy, heating and water supply defective. Drug dealers and burglars were active in the building, while the patients had to set up security services themselves. Priest, Hull, and du Cille were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for their work .

Because of the scandal, the commanding general of the WRAMC George W. Weightman was replaced and the United States Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey resigned at the request of Defense Secretary Robert Gates . In addition to other layoffs, there were further hearings in the US Congress and detailed investigations by the Department of War Veterans . Building 18 was demolished in 2015.

Amalgamation

Since 2005, on the recommendation of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission , the USA has merged military facilities of the Army, Navy and Air Force as much as possible or placed them under joint management. The Walter Reed Hospital was relocated to Bethesda west of the capital by 2011 and merged with the National Naval Medical Center located there under its current name. The original area was partly reserved for foreign representations, another part was released for housing and urban development. The Children's National Hospital has also been located there since 2016 .

Today the WRNMMC, which describes itself as the "flagship of military medicine", consists of over 100 clinics and specialist departments on 98 hectares of land with 7100 employees. In 2018, around 12,000 inpatients were treated. With a few exceptions (e.g. the government politicians mentioned above), it is only open to military personnel. An offer from the military administration to build a trauma center for civilian patients was rejected by the State of Maryland in 2017 because of possible disadvantages for the existing Washington Hospital Center .

Web links

Commons : Walter Reed Military Hospital  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ After corona infection: US President Trump in the hospital. Retrieved October 4, 2020 .
  2. ^ John R. Pierce, Michael G. Rhode, Marylou Gjernes, Catherine F. Sorge, Kathleen Stocker: Walter Reed Army Medical Center Centennial: A Pictorial History, 1909-2009 . Government Printing Office, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9818228-3-9 ( google.de [accessed May 19, 2020]).
  3. ^ "The Other Walter Reed" .
  4. ^ The Washington Post, for the work of Dana Priest, Anne Hull and photographer Michel du Cille. In: www.pulitzer.org. The Pulitzer Prizes - Columbia University, 2008, accessed May 19, 2020 .
  5. ^ Walter Reed General Loses His Command
  6. ^ Army secretary resigns in scandal's wake ( Memento of March 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ^ Saying Goodbye To Building 18 - Symbol Of Neglect For Military's Medical System. In: WAMU. Retrieved May 19, 2020 (English).
  8. ^ The first residents of the new 66-acre Walter Reed redevelopment will be 77 formerly homeless veterans. In: TheDCLine.org. Retrieved May 19, 2020 (American English).
  9. ^ The Parks — Historic Walter Reed. August 28, 2019, accessed on May 19, 2020 .
  10. ^ History of Walter Reed - Research and Innovation Campus | Children's National. Retrieved May 19, 2020 .
  11. Facts at a Glance | Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Retrieved May 19, 2020 .
  12. ^ Cox Media Group National Content Desk: 5 things to know about Walter Reed Bethesda. Retrieved May 19, 2020 (English).
  13. Jayne O'Donnell: Military hospitals like DC's Walter Reed could ease national ER overcrowding, save lives. Retrieved May 19, 2020 (American English).

Coordinates: 39 ° 0 ′ 6 "  N , 77 ° 5 ′ 41"  W.