Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), formerly known as the National Naval Medical Center and colloquially referred to as the Bethesda Naval Hospital, Walter Reed, or Navy Med, is a United States' 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, was combined with the National Naval Medical Center to form the tri-service Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

History as the National Naval Medical Center (1940–2011)

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, and designed the exterior of the building.

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. On May 22, 1949, former Secretary of the Navy and first Secretary of Defense James Forrestal died by suicide after jumping from the 16th floor of the hospital tower.

Kennedy assassination

In November 1963, the autopsy of U.S. President John F. Kennedy was performed at the Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. 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, the Secret Service demanded that the assassinated president's body be taken to Washington, D.C. immediately aboard Air Force One.

U.S. Presidential visits to NNMC

The hospital, for decades an evaluation site for U.S. presidents, includes a presidential office suite. The space is controlled by the White House, not the Department of Defense, and it includes a sitting room, kitchen, conference room, and hospital bedroom, as well as an office for the White House Chief of Staff. Presidents and vice presidents are routinely treated at the Medical Evaluation and Treatment Unit or METU Suite, which is a secured and autonomous ward within the complex.

Franklin D. Roosevelt selected the site of the hospital, laid the cornerstone, and made formal dedication remarks at the hospital's opening on November 11, 1940. When NNMC was dedicated in 1942, its original intention was to provide medical care to military personnel only. However, as 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.

Ronald Reagan, on July 13, 1985, underwent surgery to remove polyps from his colon. He sent a letter transferring power to then-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 to treat breast cancer.

On May 14, 2018, First Lady Melania Trump underwent an embolization, which is a minimally invasive procedure that deliberately blocks a blood vessel, in order to treat a benign kidney condition. The procedure was reported successful and without complications.

On October 2, 2020, President Donald Trump was admitted after contracting COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump was discharged from the hospital on October 5, 2020.

On July 29, 2021, First Lady Jill Biden underwent a procedure on her foot following an injury at the beach in Hawaii.

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.

History as the WRNMMC (2005–present)

Facility merger

In accordance with the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure recommendations, the 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). That 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 money 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"—i.e., the point after which the full amount of the investment will have been recouped and at which savings actually commence—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 National Naval Medical Center.

Current operations

WRNMMC serves as the location of the headquarters for the National Capital Region Medical Directorate, 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.

Services

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center contains many services for members of the military, veterans, and families of both.

Pediatrics

WRNMMC has multiple pediatric departments generally treat infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0-23, with some pediatric clinics treating up until age 26.

References

External links

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Navy Lodge Bethesda
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* , at Maryland Historical Trust website

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Buildings and structures in Bethesda, Maryland
National Military Medical Center
Hospital buildings completed in 1940
Hospitals established in 1940
Hospitals in Maryland
Military hospitals in the United States
Hospital buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland
1940 establishments in Maryland
National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery County, Maryland
Military installations established in 2011
Trauma centers