On the Veterans Administration Web site there’s a locator page for VA hospitals and outpatient clinics. I clicked on a few states; each had both hospitals and clinics. In Idaho, for example, there’s a VA medical center in Boise with what are referred to as 46 “authorized beds” and “an adjacent” nursing home with “an additional nine beds for inpatient substance abuse.” The state has outpatient VA clinics in Pocatello, Lewiston and Twin Falls.

The two-part Washington Post series by Dana Priest and Anne Hull on tragic neglect at Walter Reed’s outpatient facilities mentioned that “one of every four service members injured in Iraq and Afghanistan” have been treated at Walter Reed. (Click here for the first story, published Feb. 18th, and here for the second story, a day later.)

That leaves many more, one would think, who have been treated, or who are being treated, elsewhere. It’s too much to expect reporters to put in the effort that Priest and Hull did. But it’s not too much to ask that they do what they can. Hopefully, conditions elsewhere won’t be so terrible. The public won’t know until reporters and editors try to find out.