Gates pushes Walter Reed reforms

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Wednesday that he had asked the department’s top military and civilian leaders to meet weekly to carry out recommendations of groups that have examined failures at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Gates said his deputy, Gordon R. England, would lead a strategy and oversight group consisting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and health officials to see that reforms proposed by the Pentagon’s Independent Review Group, a commission appointed by President Bush and other task forces were enacted.

Gates vowed that the Defense Department would ensure that injured service members had the best care possible.

“That is what we will give them,” Gates said. “Apart from the war itself, this department and I have no higher priority.”

On April 11, the Independent Review Group, chaired by two former Army secretaries, Togo West and John O. Marsh Jr., released a lengthy list of reforms needed to improve care at Walter Reed.

The group called for a new center to study and treat brain injuries, an overhaul of the disabilities claims process, and the assignment of a primary physician to every wounded soldier.

The report said that Walter Reed was poorly equipped to handle the large influx of wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan and that the Defense Department exacerbated the problems by trying to hold down costs at the hospital.

In February, a series of stories in the Washington Post highlighted flaws in outpatient care at Walter Reed, including delays and neglect of wounded soldiers who were housed in shoddy quarters.

When the Army moved slowly in response, Gates fired Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey. Later, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, the Army surgeon general and a former commander of Walter Reed, was forced to retire.

At a news conference Wednesday to discuss the Pentagon response to the review group report, West said that the stress of trying to treat the large number of wounded from the wars laid plain the problems at Walter Reed.

“That kind of a push will always show the weaknesses in the system much more clearly,” West said.

The report said that the problems occurred at Walter Reed because of lapses in leadership and because the facility was neglected after it was slated to be closed under the Pentagon’s base closure process.

Some in Congress have called for the Pentagon to reverse its 2005 decision to close Walter Reed. But Gates said Wednesday that Walter Reed was old and that he favored investments in new hospitals at Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland and Ft. Belvoir in Virginia.

Gates said the Pentagon should speed work on the new hospitals while maintaining staffing levels at Walter Reed until it closes. Once Walter Reed was selected for closure, it became difficult to retain nurses and physicians. The hospital is scheduled to close in 2011.

Maj. Gen. Gale S. Pollock, the acting Army surgeon general, said Wednesday that the military had begun to implement the review group recommendations and make other improvements at Walter Reed.

She said the biggest improvement was bringing in additional soldiers to serve as advocates for injured soldiers in outpatient programs. Before the first news reports, there was one such patient advocate for every 55 soldiers. Now there is one for every 12 soldiers, she said.

The Army has also brought in military nurse case managers to help the injured soldiers. Some of the extra staff members are from military ranks while others are private contractors, Pollock said.

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julian.barnes@latimes.com