More electricity needed as Walter Reed patients move in
Hundreds of millions of dollars in construction planned for the military’s hospital in Bethesda won’t be able to proceed until the Defense Department spends another $36.6 million to expand the campus’ maxed-out power grid.
A substation at the National Institutes of Health across Rockville Pike has reached peak capacity and can’t provide enough electricity to power $781 million in improvements planned for the Bethesda medical campus to provide military personnel “world class” medical care, according to an Aug. 16 letter from the Defense Department to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich.
The construction, needed to meet a congressional mandate for improving medical services at Bethesda, can’t be completed without expanding the substation’s electrical capacity, the letter says.
Defense officials must spend an extra $36.6 million to improve the power grid at the Woodmont substation. The department soon will begin designing the project, according to the letter signed by Jonathan Woodson, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.
The request for electrical grid funding took congressional staffers by surprise.
“This was a new requirement that we were not briefed on,” said a staffer familiar with the project, adding that Congress has frequently been briefed by defense officials on progress at Bethesda. “This is probably something that dropped through the cracks, and now they’re looking at it as a requirement that has to be done immediately.”
Congress is waiting for a definitive answer from the Defense Department on whether the electricity issues at the substation could lead to brownouts or blackouts at the hospital.
The funds must be approved in the fiscal 2013 defense budget, but Congress routinely approves such construction funds for the military, officials said.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said officials should do whatever is necessary to keep the Bethesda hospital running smoothly.
“I am concerned by reports that the center is not yet fully prepared for the influx of new patients and personnel,” said Van Hollen, who represents the Bethesda area. “I urge the Defense Department to immediately take all necessary steps to address this situation.”
Given the time it takes to plan, design and construct an improved electrical grid, the expansion likely won’t be complete for another two to three years, officials said.
Thousands of patients, doctors and nurses have been moved to Bethesda from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District as a part of the Defense Department’s Base Realignment and Closure program, also known as BRAC.
On Sept. 15, Walter Reed will close for good and the Bethesda campus will be renamed the Bethesda Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Patient visits at Bethesda are expected to double to 1 million annually.
Vice Adm. John Mateczun, commander of the Joint Task Force National Capital Region Medical, said the requests won’t compromise patient care at the hospital. The requests being made now are part of the military’s master plan to provide better patient care, including single-patient rooms and better patient support facilities, such as dining and transportation options, he said.
Another $29.4 million is needed to build temporary medical facilities while buildings are demolished to make room for the new facilities, as the current buildings “are poorly configured, lack flexibility and expandability, and contain deficiencies in the building spaces,” the letter said.
