USA Today: Fort Riley hospital is a ‘problem facility’
Here are recent headlines about the military in Kansas:Fort Riley ¢ 1st Infantry Division(USA Today) At U.S. military hospitals, ‘everybody is overworked’: The Army operates 36 medical facilities worldwide. For the past two years, more than half have failed to meet Pentagon standards for providing a doctor within seven days for routine medical care. And the Army has been forced to spend more money sending military families to doctors in nearby communities. Payments for outside referrals have jumped from $200 million in 2000 to nearly $1 billion last year, records show. Outpatient care accounts for 70% of those costs. Here at Fort Stewart, home of the 3rd Infantry Division, Winn Community Hospital is among the worst in terms of access to routine medical care. Other problem facilities, according to Army statistics, include Walter Reed, the Army’s premier hospital; Fort Hood, Texas, the Army’s largest base; Fort Campbell, Ky., home of the 101st Airborne Division; Fort Jackson, S.C., a training facility; and Fort Riley, Kan., home of the 1st Infantry Division. Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, the Army’s acting surgeon general, says the Army’s entire health system has trouble providing care quickly enough. Fort Leavenworth(TheTimes-Tribune.com) Truck hauling soldiers’ items burns on I-81: An Atlas Moving Vans truck hauling the personal belongings of three Massachusetts-area soldiers, one of whom was recently killed in Iraq, caught fire late Sunday on Interstate 81 north when a blown rear tire created a spark, officials said Monday. Many of the belongings in the 50-foot trailer were destroyed by the fire, which happened just before midnight near the Davis Street interchange. Representatives of Atlas World Group Inc., an Evansville, Ind.-based company, are taking inventory to see what, if anything, can be salvaged. The shipment originated in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and was headed to a terminal in Westminster, Mass., about 60 miles west of Boston, Atlas’ Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Greg L. Hoover said.Kansas National Guard(AP) Highway into Greensburg reopens as rebuilding continues: U.S. Highway 54 from Pratt into Greensburg re-opening today. The highway has been closed to all traffic except emergency vehicles since a tornado devastated the town one month ago today. In the meantime, Kansas National Guard troops are still helping remove debris in Greensburg.

