The Army Surgeon General Thursday suspended the commander in charge of Army hospitals in 20 western states.
Brigadier General John Cho led the U.S. Army's Western Regional Medical Command headquartered at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma. A brief Army statement said Cho was indefinitely suspended due to an issue with the "command climate" in his organization.
The Army declined to be more specific "pending the outcome an inquiry." But WRMC spokeswoman Sharon Ayala clarified, "this has nothing to do with patient health care delivery, patient safety or access to care."
The biggest hospital in the command is Madigan Army Medical Center at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The facility has come under scrutiny in recent years for various issues such as reversals of post-traumatic stress syndrome diagnosis. However, all that predates Cho's arrival less than a year ago.
