Walter Reed Army Medical Center

(By: Taylor Schultz)

Address:   6900 Georgia Avenue NW, Washington D.C., 20307

Visiting Hours:   11am to 8pm

Cost:   Free

Website:   www.wramc.army.mil

Contact Number:   (202) 782-2071

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After High School, I would really like to become a Pediatric Nurse. Next year I will begin taking Health Occupations courses in school, which helps students prepare to enter a variety of medical and dental fields after high school. When we go to Washington D.C., I'm really looking forward to visiting the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where there are many wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan. When we visit the hospital we are going to take a care package for one of the soldiers staying there.
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The Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), named after Maj. Walter Reed (an Army physician who discovered in the early part of this century that mosquitoes transmit yellow fever), is the Army's largest health care facility. There are more than 600,000 visits a year to the main hospital. The WRAMC first opened in 1978. The hospital has 14 operating rooms, where about 650 operations are performed each month, including organ transplants, open heart surgeries, total joint replacements, and artery and vain repairs.
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In 2007 patients from the hospital, and their family members, complained that the patients weren't getting enough care and that the hospital was in very bad condition. The complaints were sent to The Washington Post  newspaper, which got the WRAMC Commanding General fired. The Secretary of the Army resigned (at the request of the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates), and Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, commander from 2002 to 2004 was forced to resign.

On May 13, 2005, the Department of Defense announced the idea of replacing Walter Reed Army Medical Center with a new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC). The new center would be located in Bethesda, Maryland (seven miles from the current location in Washington D.C.) The final closure of Walter Reed Army Medical Center has been set for September 2011.