Bush directs VA to study closing of VA hospitals

July 25, 2003

http://www.tribnet.com/news/government/story/3520737p-3551715c.html

American Lake 1 of 3 hospitals on closure list
MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is looking into closing three of its Washington state hospitals, including the one at American Lake.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray said she learned Thursday that the VA has ordered its regional officials in Seattle to consider closing the three facilities as part of a nationwide effort to transform the VA's health care system.


That effort, known as CARES, for Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services, is a 3-year-old project to plan veterans' health care beyond 2020.

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"Closure of facilities wasn't originally something for them to look at," said Jeri Rowe, the public affairs chief for the VA's Puget Sound regional office. "The administration recently directed them to look at closure options.


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Murray, in a news release Thursday, called it a "stunning directive."


She said the Bush administration ordered VA planners in Seattle to rewrite their CARES recommendations to include closure options at American Lake, Walla Walla and Vancouver.


Previously, those planners had noted the state's growing veteran population and the need for increased services, Murray said.


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Berndt said it would be difficult for South Sound veterans to make the trip to the Seattle VA hospital, especially for older patients. The VA already moved some of its specialty services from the American Lake facility to Seattle, upsetting many local veterans.


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Like other VA hospitals, patients there put up with waiting lists, and the facility struggles with funding and staffing shortages.


The American Lake and Seattle hospitals treated 56,000 patients last year, with 562,000 outpatient visits and 10,000 inpatients, Rowe said. She didn't have a breakdown for each hospital.


*Murray* sits on the Senate's Veterans Affairs Committee.


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CARES is the agency's effort to respond to changing health care needs of veterans, as well as pressure from Congress, veterans groups and others that it spend more on care and less on maintaining its facilities.


***WOW...SUPPORT OUR TROOPS.

**More of that not-really-what-we-say speech: the CARES program...... Like Healthy Forests, Clean Skies, etc. etc.

I wouldnt even treat an animal like this. The vets earned and deserved those hospitals. You got some nerve Georgie.

I've emailed it to my local rep of Viet Nam Vets Against War. Rest assured the information will be shared among vets in NW AR.

My dad was booted out of a VA hospital under Reagan.:mad:

also known as W.H.O. C.A.R.E.S.?

What a big-time SOB!!!