About Us

• Walter Reed Bethesda, the flagship of military medicine, also known as the President’s hospital, represents hope to those who enter its door way.
• In the fall of 2011, after the congressionally mandated integration of Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC), NNMC was renamed as Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Md. (WRNMMC)
• As the construction and renovation was completed to create WRNMMC, all quality of care, patient and staff satisfaction, and patient safety metrics were maintained at or above national bench marks.
• Our Patient and Family Centered Medical Home care model allows patients to take charge of their health. Family centered care is vital to the healing process for our Wounded Warriors. From the moment a wounded warrior and their loved ones arrive and throughout their recovery and follow-up care, a number of clinical therapies, lodging, transportation, resources and programs are available to help ease their stay and transition.
• We provide 24/7 support, guidance, clothing, necessities to our wounded warriors and their family members. Our philosophy is to lift them up and support them from the minute they arrive at WRB so that they feel as if their feet never hit the ground.
• Functionally integrated with our Air Force and Army medical counterparts, WRNMMC is a military team of care providers moving toward a new horizon in health care - one that offers synergy and revolutionary collaboration.
• As important as the brick and mortar of these buildings is, it pales in comparison to the importance of the care and compassion within them.

Statistics:

• 243 Acres
• 345 Total Beds
• 7,293 admissions less births (2011)
• 1,865 Births (2011)
• 9,158 Inpatient Visits
• 669,256 Outpatient Visits to Hospital Clinics (2011)
• 131.65 Average Daily Patient Load (2011)

WRNMMC’s primary mission is to ensure the readiness and care of the Uniformed Services and their families. WRNMMC also provides care for the President and Vice-President of the United States, Members of Congress, and Justices of the Supreme Court. In addition, when authorized, WRNMMC provides care for foreign military and embassy personnel.

America Building – Outpatient Facility
The new America Building includes facilities for radiation oncology treatment, Cancer Centers of Excellence, and the Military Advanced Training Center including prosthetics, physical and occupational therapy; the CAREN laboratory, the Gait Laboratory, and the Fire Arms Training System; a rehabilitation swimming pool; behavioral health for adults, adolescents and children; and other outpatient clinics such as orthopaedics, dermatology, audiology, speech, allergy/immunology, ENT, endocrinology, internal medicine, neurology, a satellite laboratory/phlebotomy, satellite pharmacy, and satellite radiology. The outpatient facility provides patients with unmatched care and rehab that focuses on several core areas for total mind and body healing.

• 515,000 sq. ft. – the largest outpatient pavilion in DoD’s inventory
• The building has 100% fresh air exchange all of the time and is 1/3 more efficient than if recycled air were used.
• Light well
  • evidence-based designed environment
  • common way-finding area
  • serves as a point of reference
  • resiliency and wellness support
  • o provides natural light to the entire building

Additional Features:

• A rehabilitation pool is used for initial physical therapy and helps rebuild muscle strength and coordination.
  • open 365 days/yr
• Prosthetic Services
  • The Prosthetics Service provides a full range of prosthetic and orthotic services. Prosthetists evaluate and fit patients for prosthetic devices and provide follow up on modifications and adjustments as needed.
  • Four prosthetics fitting rooms
    Patients are able to try on their prosthetics in private fitting rooms
  • One prosthetics adjustment lab
    • Prosthetists use state-of-the-art advanced prosthetic limb technology for design, milling, and production of prosthetic devices.
    • Prosthetic devices are manufactured, fitted and adjusted in the lab to enable the Prosthetists to work closely with the physical and occupational therapists to ensure the best possible fit and utilization of the prostheses.
    • WRB’s prosthetics lab is the lab of choice for many prosthetics companies
• Exercise Room
  • Tread wall and climbing wall
  • Indoor running track with overhead support harness

Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation
The Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center is composed of seven clinical specialty services: Orthopaedic Surgery, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Orthotics & Prosthetics, Traumatic Brain Injury, Amputee Care Services

It is the largest Department of its type within the Department of Defense, providing surgical and non-surgical care in all aspects of musculoskeletal and neurorehabilitation to military beneficiaries, including children and retirees.

Since September 11, 2001, the department has been heavily engaged in the comprehensive and holistic care of service members and families with combat related injuries. In addition, the department has robust educational and research programs, which have received national prominence in healthcare. Strong partnerships with other federal and non-federal agencies to provide even greater opportunities for optimal clinical care, cutting-edge research, and advanced education. Our clinical staff remains humbled and honored to care for this nation's heroes.

Physical Therapy
A comprehensive effort of rehabilitation can be found in the America building, which offers a premiere environment with world-class standards of care and provides the leading edge in rehabilitative care.

Physical therapists provide evaluation, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation for patients who’ve sustained trauma and/or illness. For the patient with amputation, physical therapists employ multiple interventions focusing on the patients’ interests and abilities, not their disabilities. To help patients accomplish total rehabilitation the physical therapists provide strengthening activities, pre-prosthetic training to work on dynamic balance, proprioception, and endurance, residual limb care, fit awareness, and gait training on a variety of surfaces.

Physical and occupational therapists also follow the service members from their initial evaluations through their discharge from the hospital and return to active duty or civilian life.

Occupational Therapy
Occupational Therapy (OT) provides recovering wounded warriors purposeful activities designed to increase functional independence in self-care, work and leisure activities such as bathing, dressing, cooking, shopping, childcare tasks and driving. The OT team provides evaluation and treatment for conditions including amputation, fracture, nerve injury, and soft tissue injury. Additionally, OT facilitates activities to help patients regain their range of motion, increase muscle strength, decrease pain and ability to perform functional tasks to reach their maximum potential and independence.

Gait Lab
The Gait Lab of the Center for Performance and Clinical Research (CPCR) uses sophisticated motion analysis equipment (23 infrared cameras, reflective markers and six force plates) to provide three-dimensional images of the patients’ movement. The information gained through motion analysis helps modify prosthetic devices and individualize physical therapy treatment approaches for the patient to improve movement skills such as walking, running and jumping.

The Gait Lab utilizes a large open space where patients can walk and/or run and do various forms of physical activity and range of motion in order to evaluate their gait, balance, and walking patterns via Pixar type image data capture and analysis. It houses a Bertec instrumented elevating treadmill, floor embedded force plates and Vicon motion capture cameras. All instrumentation is linked to software which provides real time data with graphic representations to the operators and therapists.

Main Features:

• The complex biomechanics of walking and running can be recorded and analyzed
• Rehabilitative treatments can be analyzed and compared to historical data
• Prosthetic limbs are fine tuned and aligned to bring the patient to their most natural gait and walk cycle
• Force plates in the floor and treadmill provide pressure data from the patients’ feet which is combined with the motion capture for a comprehensive study.

Computer Assisted Rehabilitative Environment (CAREN) Lab
One of five of its kind in the world, the CAREN provides a safe, controlled setting where patients can work on balance, coping with stress, using new prosthetics and other skills necessary to achieve functional real-life goals. Using specialized cameras and computers linked to sensors on their bodies, recovering Warriors interact with a virtual world projected onto a life-sized curved screen by shifting their weight on a motion platform with an embedded treadmill. More than 70 scenarios enable recovering Warriors to perform virtual activities such as steering a boat through buoys in a lake or replicate running up and down trails in the woods, or through city streets without fear of falling.

The CAREN system is designed by the Dutch firm Motek Medical. It consists of a circular platform with a dual belt instrumented treadmill attached to a hydraulic motion base able to provide yaw, pitch, and roll individually or in combination. The motion platform combined with a 180 degree projection screen, surround sound system, and Vicon motion capture system provide immersion into virtual environments developed to achieve rehabilitation assessments and goals.

Main Features:

• Virtual scenarios are developed to achieve rehabilitation goals for mobility, balance, and cognitive deficits
• Can be used to treat a number of patient populations at various stages of their rehabilitation, including patients with amputations, traumatic brain injury, vestibular deficits, and other orthopedic and neuromuscular injuries
• Applications are designed with immediate feedback and video game-like aspects to increase motivation and help patients look past their limitations
• Vicon motion capture is incorporated to allow the patient to interact with and/or control the virtual environment
• More extensive motion data can be captured with the Vicon cameras and the force plates embedded in the treadmill for evaluation and research purposes
• There are at least 15 CAREN systems in the world, 9 that are as advanced as this system, 5 of which are in the US (all at military medical centers)
• Similar technologies are used in entertainment/animation industries

FATS Lab
The FATS (Fire Arms Training Simulator) lab is a computer-based system designed to train students in weapons operation and proficiency. A wireless weapon simulator room uses Bluetooth technology in over 200 scenarios to allow the individual to regain or improve skills by progressing from basic target shooting to complex combat environment activities. The system exposes students to realistic training situations and also provides advanced diagnostics tools for the instructor. The system includes training exercises in marksmanship and computer-generated imagery (CGI). All exercises may be replayed to de-brief students and to critique their performance at the end of training.

Main Features:

• Two main features: firearms training system as well as outdoor physical training (teaching service members to sport hunt as a hobby)
• Addresses physical, cognitive, psychological and soldiering needs of the patient.
• Engages and benefits neuromuscular skeletal, balance, nero/cognitive, visual and psychological deficits
• Prepares warrior for return to active duty or transition to civilian life.

Radiation Oncology
The Department of Radiation Oncology has the most advanced radiation treatment systems in the DoD Healthcare system including three linear accelerators and a brachy therapy after loader. A PET/CT scanner and 1.5 Tesla MRI provide imaging for patient studies and treatment planning.

Main Features:

• The linear accelerators include Tomotherapy, Varian Trilogy and Varian TrueBeam STX/BrainLab.
• Treatment planning studies provide for targeting data and electron/photon beam energy levels to be programmed into the accelerators.
• Irregular and complex tumor shapes can be localized and treated with a focused effort to induce minimal effect on adjacent healthy tissue.
• Rotating gantries deliver exposure to the target area from multiple angles. An automatically adjusting beam aperture, receiving real time target profile information from on-board imaging systems, corrects for slight changes in tumor shape due to breathing etc. The result is a precisely sculpted beam shape and dose distribution.
• The TrueBeam STX/BrainLab system is one of a handful in the world and is the most advanced system in the field. It provides higher dose delivery rates for shorter treatment times and provides micrometer precise patient localization for head and neck stereotactic radiosurgery.
• The brachy therapy system provides for internal radiotherapy where a radiation source or seed is placed through a catheter directly into the treatment area.

Arrowhead Building - Inpatient Facility

• 162,000 square sq. ft.
• 50 ICU beds
  • 26 Bed surgical 24 bed Medical
  • New Negative and Positive pressure rooms
  • Patient lifts above toilets in 1/3 of ICU’s
  • Ability to connect up to 8 wound vacuums in the ICU’s
• 7 Interventional Endovascular and Radiology suites
• Elevators sized to support and accommodate a full triage team’s ability to simultaneously work on a patient if needed
• Evidenced based designed Family Day rooms with a refrigerator and microwave to support the Family Centered Care model
• ICU pharmacy
• Tri-Service represented and Civilian Nursing Staff
• Evidenced based design Physician Consultation rooms

Additional Features:
Smart Suite Technology
Walter Reed Bethesda has 165 Smart suites that enhance communication and the quality of patient care by providing information to our clinicians, patients and their families in a real time environment that augments patient recovery.

Smart suites at WRB are located in the Medical/Surgical Wards and Mother-Infant Care Center in Building 10, on floors five and six respectively.

Smart Suites feature smart beds, bedside education and entertainment, two-way communication devices, electronic room signage, clinical dashboards, real time location services and wireless capabilities,. The rooms also allow medical providers to monitor their patients' bed status, position and activity through alerts and facilitate communication with the patient through nurse-call systems.

Patients can pull up photos of loved ones, read e-mails, and watch on-demand movies and access personal health records via the internet and social networks by using their wireless keyboard. These rooms will help them stay connected with family members and friends.

Administrative, Research, and Fitness Building

• Historical building –415,000 sq. ft.
• Historical façade was preserved
• Interior reinforced to meet anti-terrorism force protection requirements
• Atrium: Evidence based design to let in natural light and provide respite, resiliency, and wellness
• Full weight room including free weights and machines
• Cardio fitness center, aerobics and spin classes
• Olympic sized, 25 by 50 meter swimming pool with full wheelchair access
• Elevated running track
• Gymnasium with volley ball and 6 basketball courts
• Hand Ball, Squash, and Racquet Ball courts
• Open-air terrace
• 570 space partially underground parking garage incorporated in to the facility
• Bench top research facility

Physical Therapy - Offers a climbing wall, tread wall and an indoor running track with overhead harness.

Indoor Track - The world’s first overhead oval support system, connected to a rail above a 225-foot athletic track enables service members to walk, run, skate or even jump hurdles. The overhead support system frees the therapists to help Warriors make corrections to their gait and recover from missteps quicker. Untethered to their therapists, the Warriors make faster progress using the harness because it gives patients a stronger sense of independence and progressive accomplishment.

Tranquility Hall – Wounded Warrior Barracks
Tranquility Hall is one of several outpatient barracks where wounded warriors will live in while continuing to heal and undergo rehabilitation at Walter Reed Bethesda.

The new ADA compliant, 306-bed, 315,000 square foot facility, features 153 two-bedroom, two-bath suites equipped with common kitchens and seating areas, washer and dryer units, flat screen televisions and computers with printers.

Specifically tailored to meet the needs of wounded service members, Tranquility Hall features walk-in and wheelchair accessible closets and showers in each bedroom.

Tranquility Hall provides a home-like environment for patients, and because of the additional bedroom, allows for multiple caregivers, such as parents, spouses, or a non-medical attendant, to stay and assist the Service member.

Food service is offered in Tranquility Hall’s Warrior Café, daily from 0600 to 2100.

Warrior Family Coordination Cell
Ensuring we provide the utmost comfort to our Wounded Warriors, our Warrior Family Coordination Cell (WFCC) oversees all aspects of their stay while at Bethesda. The WFCC liaises with patients and stakeholders to achieve our goal of offering an optimal healing environment for recovering Wounded, Ill, and Injured Warriors (WII) and their families. In addition, the WFCC is a link between the hospital and those entities which provide non-medical support to the WII. Service specific as well as general and benevolent organization supports are coordinated by the WFCC.

Austin’s Playroom
Also located on the first floor is Tranquility Hall's new 2,000 sq. ft. resident childcare facility, Austin's Playroom, which offers respite care for children ages six weeks to 12 years, for up to 25 hours a week.

With space for 27 children, Austin's Playroom gives priority to the children of wounded warriors, but accepts children of personnel who may need child care while they attend a medical appointment. The facility is open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday-Friday.

Parents must attend a 10-minute orientation and bring in their child's immunizations record prior to using the facility.

The Austin's Playroom project is a gift from the Mario Lemieux Foundation (MLF). Established in 1993 by former professional hockey player Mario Lemieux after his son was born premature, Lemieux, his wife, Nathalie, and Austin, came up with the idea for the project, which funds the development of playrooms for children of families with hospitalized or rehabilitating members.

National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE)
The National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) is a facility dedicated to advancing the clinical care, diagnosis, research, and education of service members and families experiencing combat related traumatic brain injury (TBI) and psychological health (PH) conditions. The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund (IFHF) led the fundraising effort for the Center, securing $65 million in private donations from the American people and overseeing the construction and equipping of the facility. NICoE was officially gifted to the Department of Defense in a dedication ceremony on June 24, 2010 and later transferred from TRICARE Management Activity’s Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) to the Department of the Navy for further alignment under the former National Naval Medical Center, effective August 10, 2010.

• 72,000 square ft.
• Driving simulator for driving rehabilitation
• CAREN (Computer Assisted Rehabilitative Environment)
• FATS (Fire Arms Training Simulator)
• Virtual Iraq and Afghanistan
  • Primarily used for research to monitor psychological triggers
  • Ability to introduce smells, people and objects on the screen
• Training dog program
• Wireless internet facility
• Group setting environment for improved patient outcomes
• Art therapy – masks & music
• Healing garden
  • Evidence-based design
  • Natural light
  • Offers nature sounds and music
  • Varied walking surfaces
  • Labyrinth

In addition to mind and body healing, WRNMMC offers quality lodging for Wounded Warriors.
Comfort and Solace Halls
Built in 1986 and 1993 respectively, Comfort and Solace Halls were primarily Bachelor Enlisted Quarters exclusively for housing personnel working at the Medical Center, both have since been completely renovated. All first floor rooms are well appointed and are ADA accessible. In addition to the 168 sleeping rooms, there are administrative and recreational space and underground parking for 60 automobiles.

Mercy Hall
Renovated in 2008 to improve the quality of life for its residence, provides 98 ADA compliant single bedrooms and a Fleet and Family Support Office, a communal laundry room, a lounge area and an intercom system in the event of a medical emergency. Directly behind Mercy Hall is a tranquil seating area where WII can take in fresh air or chat with their loved ones.

Residents of Mercy Hall also will have access to food service in the hospital’s Galley from 0600- 0030 located directly across the street.

Sanctuary Hall
A facility to be constructed in the future, will be a 200 bed ADA compliant facility, located in a secluded area on base, will offer single and two bedroom suites that will have the built in flexibility to house warriors and their extended families. The facility will include a laundry room, day room and a communal kitchen. In addition, warriors will have access to a new garage containing approximately 460 spaces.

Service members are welcome to stay at the lodging facilities until they’re medically cleared to go back to their unit or they receive their physical evaluation board findings or transition into active reserves.

Fisher Houses
Additional lodging, provided to WII and their family members, are the five Fisher Houses-the most on one base within the DoD system. The Fisher House program at Naval Support Activity Bethesda provides military families 68 handicapped suites, 20 of which are private, a place to stay at no cost while their loved one is treatment. Patients who are medically cleared may also stay at the Fisher Houses.

Each includes a common area, communal dining, family rooms and play rooms for children.

Navy Lodge
Operating under the Navy Exchange Service Command, offers 106 guest rooms for service members funded by their service, if they have a medical appointment or are Temporary Additional Duty, Permanent Change of Station or Temporary Duty.

Resources/Programs
A number of resources and programs are provided to wounded warriors and their families including financial management, relocation assistance, deployed support and emergency preparedness and family wellness. These services help reduce the level of stress as they are going through a time of change.

In addition, there is no shortage of resources for those transitioning out of the military and into the civilian workforce. Partnering with nearly 400 community organizations wounded warriors are assisted every step of the way.

Integrated Leadership
WRNMMC is the first Military Treatment Facility that has A Navy Admiral as the Commanding Officer and an Army Colonel as the Chief of Staff. In addition, Navy and Army leadership is shared through-out the Chain of Command.

Joint Commission Accreditation
The medical center received Joint Commission accreditation in recognition of the it’s safe and high quality care, treatment and services, Feb. 9, 2011

The Joint Commission accredits and certifies more than 18,000 health care organizations and programs nationwide, ensuring health care provided is safe and effective.

Evaluating the hospital's efforts to improve performance, the commission also reviewed more than 1,500 standards, addressing areas such as medication management, emergency management, leadership, life safety, rights and responsibilities of the individual, treatment and services, and national patient safety goals.

The Joint Commission also returned in mid April for a one-day, life-safety survey of the hospital's new spaces, and received high marks for its performance.

LEED Silver Certification Details
WRNNMC received a LEED Gold certification for the America and Arrowhead Buildings, going above and beyond the minimum requirement. The buildings are designed to achieve a minimum LEED Silver certification. WRNMMC achieved LEED gold by incorporating:

• The site storm water system performs 25 percent better in preventing flooding downstream than code due to local water pollution issues.
• Covered parking and new landscaping are designed to camouflage cars and reduce the amount of hot pavement that would upset the circadian rhythm of the natural habitat and systems.
• Light pollution controls will prevent the interior and exterior lighting from illuminating the night sky and unnecessarily spilling light onto adjacent plazas and buildings.
• The heating, ventilation and cooling systems incorporate cutting edge technology such as efficient lighting systems, an Enthalpy heat recovery wheel to transfer energy between exhaust and incoming outside air, and high efficiency water cooled centrifugal chillers to save 21% energy to heat and cool the building.
• The Enthalpy wheel allows the occupants to enjoy 100 percent outside air in lieu of the usually re-circulated air.
• All interior materials products are selected based on toxicity, performance and environmentally friendly aspects