DOD reassessing plans for new medical center near Ramstein

Defense Department officials say they are reassessing plans for a new military hospital to replace Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. A recent congressional report found calculation errors, improper documentation and other problems with the department’s initial proposal.

The Pentagon is conducting an analysis as requested by Congress to ensure the project is “properly sized and scoped to meet current and projected healthcare requirements taking into account manpower decreases, economic conditions and feasibility of using more of the German healthcare network,” Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said in an email.

“It would be inappropriate at this time to comment on the outcome of that study prior to its completion,” Smith said.

Smith did not say when the department expected to complete the study.

But the office of Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has been notified that the reassessment is complete “and that it should be ready to come to us in the next few weeks,” Kathleen Long, a spokeswoman for Levin’s office, said in an email Monday.

Smith also did not say whether the new analysis takes into account the planned troop reductions in Europe.