Happy endings are rare for government scandals, but last year’s uproar over poor conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center may prove to be the exception. President Bush named a bipartisan commission to investigate, and last week it offered some valuable suggestions on how to help wounded veterans and their families navigate the federal bureaucracy.

The most notable finding by the Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors is how unusual the Walter Reed episode was. Medical care for our wounded in action is nothing short of extraordinary. “I haven’t had a single serviceman or woman complain about their treatment in the hospital,” says former Sen. Bob Dole, who co-chaired the commission with Miami University President and former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala.

The table, at right, compiled by the commission gives a sense of how well the Pentagon treats the wounded and how the vast majority are rapidly returning to active duty. About seven of every eight seriously injured GIs now survive, compared with five of eight during Vietnam. What can broadly be called the “Walter Reed problem” concerns the 3,100 or so soldiers who’ve been seriously injured and thus must confront months or years of outpatient rehabilitation.

The commission found that the main problem isn’t neglect or a lack of resources. Thanks to the Fisher House Foundation, even family members have a place to stay at little cost as they tend to their sons, husbands or wives. The biggest problem is the complexity of the federal bureaucracies that the injured have to negotiate. There are often “so many coordinators that people couldn’t remember their names,” said Ms. Shalala. This is no doubt maddening, as anyone who has had to deal with the immigration service or IRS can also attest.

With that in mind, the commission recommends that a federal “recovery coordinator” be assigned to guide each seriously wounded warrior through rehabilitation. These would in effect be bureaucratic sherpas, people who would become experts on the overall system and steer the wounded and his family to the proper facilities and care. The commission says that no more than 50 to 100 such coordinators would be needed and that they could report to the U.S. Surgeon General as part of the public health service. The commission has other valuable proposals, and Mr. Bush has called for them all to be implemented. Our main worry is that most are so sensible that Congress will mess them up.