VA Announces Changes for Georgia Health Care Facilities

WASHINGTON – Eight new community based outpatient clinics and expansion of the Spinal Cord Injury Center at Augusta are part of a comprehensive plan by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to modernize its nationwide system of health care facilities, officials announced today.

“These changes will provide greater access to care for veterans,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi. “By strengthening our network of outpatient clinics, we will bring a greater quality of care closer to where most of Georgia’s veterans live.” 

About 120,000 of Georgia’s 746,000 veterans were treated last year in VA’s health care facilities, up from 94,000 in 2000.  In 2003, VA spent $1.8 billion in Georgia, an increase from $1.3 billion three years before.

Secretary Principi noted that about 80 percent of the health care provided by VA is outpatient care.  He said the plan would enable the department to enhance its ability to provide more of the outpatient care veterans want and use, while building upon VA’s expertise in providing highly specialized inpatient care.

The changes are part of a comprehensive plan called CARES, short for “Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services.”  The CARES report can be viewed in its entirety on VA’s Web site at http://www.va.gov/CARES.

Principi’s announcement includes the following enhancements for Georgia:

• Improve access to primary and mental health care with new community based outpatient clinics (CBOCs) proposed for Athens, Brunswick, Milledgeville, Noonan, Perry, Stockbridge, Camden and Hinesville;   
• Expand Spinal Cord Injury Center at the Augusta VA Medical Center;
• Renovate inpatient wards in Atlanta;
• Develop a plan to optimize space at the Uptown Division of the Augusta VAMC; and
• Retain inpatient medical services at Dublin and convert surgery beds to observation beds;

CARES is a plan to modernize and improve VA’s health care system.  Among the elements of the Secretary’s CARES decision are more than 150 new community based outpatient clinics, potential creation of four new – and expansion of five existing – spinal cord injury centers, two new blind rehabilitation centers, and expansions throughout VA’s healthcare system that will enhance veterans’ access to VA care. 

In July 1999, a General Accounting Office study found that VA was diverting a million dollars a day – or $3.6 billion during a decade – from veterans’ health care to maintenance on unneeded or unused facilities.  The average age of VA’s more than 4,900 buildings is more than 50 years, and the need to reduce vacant space and unneeded buildings has been the focus of several reports by the General Accounting Office.  

CARES was developed to identify the infrastructure VA will need to care for veterans in the 21^st century, redirecting resources from unneeded buildings to veterans’ care. Savings from CARES will be retained locally and used locally to strengthen health care services for local veterans.

“CARES modernizes VA’s 74-year old health care system,” said Principi. “I want to emphasize that no veteran will lose health care as a result of CARES, nor will there be any gaps in their health care services.”

The CARES plan was reviewed by an independent commission, which received more than 212,000 comments and held 81 site visits to VA and Department of Defense medical facilities, and state homes, 38 public hearings and 10 formal meetings.  The commission submitted its recommendations to Secretary Principi in mid-February.

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