Womack leaders return from suspensions; Fort Bragg silent on cause

The commander and senior enlisted leader of Womack Army Medical Center have been reinstated following suspensions that lasted nearly three months.

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Col. Lance C. Raney and Command Sgt. Maj. Michael T. Stoddard returned to work Thursday, according to Fort Bragg officials. Raney announced their return in a hospital-wide email.

“Col. Lance Raney and Command Sgt. Maj. Stoddard were reinstated today as the commander and command sergeant major of Womack Army Medical Center,” Fort Bragg spokesman Tom McCollum said Thursday evening. “During this time period the staff at Womack Army Medical Center continued providing high quality and professional medical care for the greater Fort Bragg community.”

While the leaders have returned to duty, officials are still mum about why they were suspended in the first place.

On Thursday, McCollum said the cause of the investigations that suspended Raney and Stoddard were “of a personal nature” and thus could not be released.

Officials have previously said the investigation was not related to patient care at the hospital, which is one of the largest in the U.S. military, or its outlying clinics.

“Womack Army Medical Center is committed to providing quality, safe health-care to patients and the Fort Bragg community,” McCollum said.

Raney has commanded the hospital since January 2016. Stoddard joined him in the hospital’s leadership in May 2016. The pair were suspended Feb. 9.

Col. Johnnie Wright Jr., the hospital’s deputy commander for clinical services, served the past 12 weeks as interim commander and Command Sgt. Maj. Fergus Joseph was named the senior enlisted noncommissioned officer in Stoddard’s absence.

The sudden suspension of the hospital leaders came as hospital officials had been working to distance Womack from several past issues, including the removal of a previous commander in 2014 following complaints related to patient care.

That same year, the hospital conducted a two-day stand-down to address shortcomings found by a team from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, a national nonprofit that accredits more than 2,000 health-care organizations and programs.

McCollum said Womack recently underwent a successful Joint Commission survey that was unrelated to the more recent suspensions