Flooded Walter Reed clinics to reopen Friday

The water main break occurred Oct. 10 on the fourth floor of Building 8, an older structure on the 250-acre hospital campus of the former National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., which took on its new title when the old Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington closed Sept. 15.

The flood, according to an internal memo, temporarily shuttered optometry and ophthalmology spaces and two clinics that treat troops at both ends of the deployment cycle -- the Warrior clinic, which provides care to wounded troops living on campus, and the Readiness clinic, which offers predeployment health care.

Sandy Dean, a Walter Reed spokeswoman, said patients scheduled for treatment in all three clinics were relocated to other spaces during the cleanup.

The master plan for closure of the old Walter Reed Army Medical Center and its move to Bethesda calls for demolition of Building 8 in 2014 following construction of new buildings. In the meantime, hospital sources said, Building 8 has undergone a period of extensive interior renovation.