Inspection of Madigan hospital complete

SEATTLE – Army officials on Thursday wrapped up their inspection of Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis, one of 11 military hospitals under review following problems at the country’s most prestigious military medical center.

Revelations about poor living conditions and bureaucratic delays at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., prompted President Bush to order inspections at 11 bases in seven states, including Washington.

On Thursday, inspectors revealed only what they were focusing on during their reviews, but would not discuss their findings at the military hospital south of Tacoma.

“We are visiting and reviewing medical hold, medical holdover operations across the Army. We want to see what’s going right, what we’re doing well and where we need to improve,” said Col. Bernard DeKoning, the Army’s assistant surgeon general for force projection.

In particular, the Army is looking at how soldiers are dealt with as they move through the medical system, whether it’s evacuee to inpatient, inpatient to outpatient and ultimately to the Veterans Administration, DeKoning said.

The four areas of focus are soldier welfare, infrastructure, the administrative process and communications between Army personnel and soldiers and their families.

“We welcome public scrutiny, we welcome soldier input and family input and we want to get this right,” DeKoning said.

The team of 10 Army and civilian members includes physicians, nurses and administrative experts. They arrived Wednesday morning at Madigan, the ninth of their 11 stops.

“We’ve seen a lot of great work by a lot of great Americans, both military and civilian,” DeKoning said.

Inspectors also asked soldiers about where improvements can be made. DeKoning would not characterize those conversations and spoke only in general terms about his impression of Madigan.

“This location, like all others, is doing many things right, and could also look introspectively to see where we can do things different,” DeKoning said.

Inspectors left Madigan Thursday to visit the last two installations, Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu and Guthrie Ambulatory Health Care Clinic at Fort Drum, N.Y.

DeKoning said the team’s findings will be provided in a report to the Army surgeon general, toward the end of this month or the beginning of April.

“The results of our visit, no doubt, there will be positive change,” he said.

Based on talks with injured or wounded soldiers, leaders at Fort Lewis and Madigan already are proposing changes at the hospital.

One plan is to create a health care adviser to act as independent counsel to soldiers and their families, said Col. George McClure, deputy commander of clinical operations for Western Regional Medical Command.

The counselor would help soldiers interpret medical information and be on hand to answer any technical medical questions they may have, he said.

Officials this week also opened an office to investigate complaints by injured guardsmen and reservists, and the hospital plans to dedicate a clinic just for soldiers injured in Iraq or Afghanistan.