A sparrow, upper left, perches on a birdhouse in the backyard of Carroll Brooks' home in Salina. Brooks has made more than 150 birdhouses for his backyard.

Fort Riley ? Medical officials here opened their doors Tuesday to the news media, offering disclosure in the wake of revelations of problems at the Army’s Walter Reed Medical Center.

For Col. Dawn Smith, commander of the 44-bed Irwin Army Community Hospital, it was a chance to let people know the difference between the two facilities – and demonstrate how seriously she is taking the issues at Walter Reed.

“It was like getting kicked in the gut,” Smith said as she walked through the inpatient ward, saying it was difficult to learn “our system has let our soldiers down.”

“I don’t know what’s broken, but we need to fix it. It’s not just a Walter Reed problem. It’s all our problem.”

The tour follows disclosures of roach-infested conditions and shoddy outpatient care at Walter Reed, one of the nation’s premier military hospitals. Since those revelations from the Washington Post, three high-level Pentagon officials have been forced to step down.

President Bush appointed a commission led by former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, a Democrat, to conduct a broad review on veteran and troop care.

Irwin hospital provides care to 43,000 soldiers, family members and retirees in the Fort Riley area. Built in the early 1950s, the hospital is the primary care center for the post, but doesn’t have a full trauma center. Most of the soldiers coming back from Iraq or Afghanistan with wounds already had most of their surgeries before arriving at Fort Riley.

Though the hospital is undergoing renovations, it appeared clean. Smith took reporters and camera crews throughout the building to see where 50 babies are born, 2,100 people receive emergency room care and 30,000 prescriptions are filled monthly.

Investigators from the national, nonprofit commission that accredits hospitals visited Irwin in February. Smith said the team found three deficiencies, all related to paperwork and not patient care.

“For a 50-year-old facility, it’s a good news process. They looked everywhere,” Smith said. “They had their hard hats and flashlights.”

Since the Walter Reed story broke, Smith said three organizations have called to offer help with caring for soldiers and families.

“It’s just been a great outpouring of support,” said Smith, who served until last summer at the international zone hospital in Baghdad.