VA Announces Changes for Texas Health Care Facilities

   WASHINGTON – Creating 11 community clinics, evaluating the most appropriate means to care for veterans now treated at Waco and transferring acute care services from Kerrville to San Antonio are part of a comprehensive plan by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to modernize its nationwide system of health care facilities.

The plan also calls for a study to examine closing the Big Spring facility and transferring inpatient services to a new facility in the Odessa Midlands area and renovating the Dallas medical center.

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

About 366,000 of Texas’ 1,700,000 veterans were treated last year in VA’s health care facilities, up from 281,000 in 2000.  In 2003, VA spent $4.8 billion in Texas, an increase from $3.7 billion three years before. 

Secretary Principi noted that about 80 percent of the health care provided nationwide by VA is outpatient care.  He said the plan would allow the department 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 secretary’s 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 health care affecting veterans in Texas:

• Open 11 new community outpatient clinics in northeast Bexar, Conroe two clinics in the Galveston area, Katy, Lake Jackson, Plano, Richmond, Tomball, Brooks Air Force Base and East El Paso;
• Evaluate the most appropriate means and site for providing care for the veterans now treated at the Waco campus, to include the potential benefits of collocating inpatient psychiatric care with other acute inpatient care in Temple and expanding services to Austin-area veterans.  The study will also include an analysis of moving the Veterans Benefits Administration Regional Office onto the Waco campus and identify options for divesting or leasing a significant portion of the underused property to generate savings for veterans’ health care;
• Renovate the San Antonio VA Medical Center to expand acute inpatient services;  
• Transfer acute care services at the Kerrville to San Antonio when renovations have been completed at the San Antonio facility.  Nursing home and outpatient services will remain at Kerrville.  During the transition, VA will maintain inpatient services to Kerrville area veterans or provide care through contracts with community health care providers;
• Study the possibility of closing the Big Spring facility and transferring inpatient services to a new facility in the Odessa Midland area;
• Expand the Dallas medical center’s in-house services through construction and renovation;
• Improve access to inpatient care for veterans by contracting for care in Harlingen and Corpus Christi;
• Improve access to inpatient care for Austin area veterans by leasing  or contacting for care and seeking an affiliation with the University of Texas Health Science Center; and
• Move the Brownsville outpatient clinic to Harlingen.

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 health care 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.  

At the 900,000-square-foot Waco facility, approximately 300,000 square feet is vacant and the 362,000-square-foot Kerrville facility has approximately 4,000 square feet of unused space.  The average age of VA’s 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.  

This approach to facility’s management means the dollars once wasted on old and vacant buildings can be used to enhance services in the communities where health care is provided.

“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 Veterans Homes, 38 public hearings and 10 formal meetings.  The commission submitted its recommendations to Secretary Principi in mid-February.

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