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Army Brig. Gen. Jack M. Davis assumed authority of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) during a ceremony July 30 at Naval Support Activity Bethesda, home to WRNMMC.
Davis replaced Army Col. (Dr.) Andrew M. Barr, WRNMMC director since July 29, 2019. Barr retired after 24 years of active duty service in the military, which included leading Walter Reed during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and overseeing the medical center’s ongoing multi-million dollars Medical Center Addition and Alterations (MCAA) project.
Rear Adm. Anne Swap, National Capital Region Market (NCR) director, officiated the change of ceremony. The Defense Health Agency’s (DHA) NCR Market exercises authority, direction, and control over WRNMMC, along with Fort Belvoir Community Hospital (Virginia), DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic (Pentagon), Tri-Service Dental Clinic, Fairfax Health Center, Dumfries Health Center, Joint Pathology Center (JPC), Naval Health Clinic Quantico (Virginia), Branch Health Clinic Washington Navy Yard, Naval Health Clinic Annapolis (Maryland), Kimbrough Ambulatory Care Center (Maryland), Andrew Rader U.S. Army Health Clinic, 316th Medical Group - Joint Base Andrews (Malcom Grow Medical Clinics and Surgery Center) and 316th Medical Squadron - Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling.
Swap said WRNMMC “serves as touchstone for military medicine.” The world’s largest joint military medical center with a staff of approximately 7,000 personnel, which includes active-duty military, civil-service employees, contractors and volunteers, WRNMMC sees approximately 4,000 outpatients, fills about 3,400 prescriptions, and conducts more than 30 operating room procedures, 500 radiological studies and 11,000 lab tests during an average day.
In addition to educating and developing Military Health System’s (MHS) medical professionals, WRNMMC provides “cutting-edge medical breakthroughs and conducts research,” Swap added. She said recent research conducted by WRNMMC staff has led to “improved COVID treatments, [and] I’d like to believe we have the very best people treating our patients. They have worked tirelessly over the last 24 months, 18 months of a global pandemic, ensuring the safety of our patients and each other.”
The WRNMMC staff administered more than 21,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Swap. “As one of the first MTFs to receive the vaccine, Walter Reed developed the gold standard of vaccine delivery, serving as an example for all MTFs to follow. Their best practice resulted in a loss dose rate of .06 percent, below the national and MHS averages for dose wastage,” she said.
Nationally, as of April 12, approximately 0.12 percent wastage of the COVID-19 vaccine has been reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which collects reports on how many doses are spoiled, expired or otherwise unusable throughout the country.
“Walter Reed has been responsible for acceptance, storage and redistribution of more than 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to the National Capital Region, including many non-Department of Defense facilities, enabling the widest distribution possible to government agencies in the NCR,” Swap continued.
“When I think of graduate medical education (GME) or professional education in the MHS, I think of the staff of Walter Reed. When I think of quality and innovation, I think of Walter Reed. The staff is constantly innovating on the cutting-edge [and] leading forward on the principle of high reliability,” she added.
Davis comes to WRNMMC after serving as chief of the Army Nurse Corps and commanding general of the Regional Health Command-Pacific, headquartered at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. “I’m excited to join this great team, and I’m confident we can carry on the great work that has already been accomplished under Colonel Barr’s leadership.”
Barr said the change of authority, which was followed by his retirement ceremony, wasn’t about him or one individual, but “the team.” He called WRNMMC, “the flagship of military medicine,” and the NCR, the “premier market in the DHA. It is always about the team, [because] we are stronger together, and we serve our patients and each other best when everyone is included…when the entire multi-disciplinary team brings their expertise to the mission at hand, and focus it on something greater than any one of us.
“It’s about leaders who mentor, teach and mold the future. It’s about surgeons general, commanders and leaders who guide us through uncertain times, provide us with vision and resources to execute our mission, and hold us accountable to be better than we can be on our own. It’s about the MHS, our medical centers, hospitals and clinics, where we build the medical readiness of our nation’s warriors and their families, and in doing so, maintain our own readiness, [and] build the future readiness of our forces through GME, training and research.
“It’s about Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where [the team] constantly and gracefully do extraordinary things routinely every day. Where you dedicate yourself to your patients and each other, to serve a purpose larger than yourself,” Barr concluded.
| Date Taken: | 08.10.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 09.01.2021 09:37 |
| Story ID: | 402768 |
| Location: | BETHESDA, MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 640 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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