Federal, state red tape snarls use of Walter Reed Hospital

A disagreement between the state of Maryland and the federal government is preventing the use of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as a Washington- area trauma center, eliminating the potential for an alternative to the troubled MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

Maryland emergency services officials quietly rebuffed Walter Reed’s proposal in July to start treating civilian trauma patients, citing the needs of nearby civilian hospitals, although local emergency rooms are overcrowded and the area has a higher- than- usual risk of terrorist attacks.

The 2017 National Defense Authorization Act required the secretary of Defense to integrate military hospitals with civilian care and to require military hospitals to treat civilians if needed to maintain “military readiness skills.”

Walter Reed’s surgeons, who deploy from the hospital, need to be able to “exercise all the muscles” needed, including getting experience with trauma patients immediately after an incident, says Col. Jeffrey Bailey, who is Walter Reed’s director of surgery.

At a time of decreased U. S. combat activities in Afghanistan and Iraq, there are fewer combat injuries and deaths so military doctors handle less trauma care.

Trauma services are sorely strained in most of the country.

“We have an overwhelmed system,” says emergency physician David Marcozzi, an associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Besides, he says, “the truth is, there are probably no better surgeons in the U. S.” than in the military.