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Don’t skimp on hospital

It would be easy to dismiss concerns about whether the new Walter Reed National Medical Center is going to be a “world-class facility” as an issue of status rather than patient care.

Easy, were it not for the 2007 scandal at the current Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The media-exposed squalor and often substandard care wounded vets were consigned to endure proved a black eye for the Army, brought firings of top brass and put new scrutiny on plans for the $2.4 billion medical center that now is under construction and due to open in 2011.

Congress said it had to be a “world-class” hospital and asked for a panel of experts, headed by Dr. Kenneth Kizer, the highly regarded former Veterans Affairs Department undersecretary for health, to help define what that means.

Kizer’s panel of experts found serious shortcomings with the design, including such deficiencies as lack of parking spaces, too few private rooms and a shortage of operating rooms.

Moreover, the panel says, the huge project lacks a comprehensive master plan and suffers funding restrictions as a base realignment and closure project.

The Defense Department and Congress ought to give serious consideration to the panel’s findings and recommended fixes — even if it slows the project — before it is too late to ensure the new medical center will provide the absolute best care for those it serves and those who work there.

Anything less would be a new scandal.