Full-service VA hospital on drawing board

Ed Koch and Benjamin Grove

Thursday, May 23, 2002 | 11:11 a.m.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is weighing a plan that would replace the structurally damaged Addeliar Guy III Ambulatory Care Clinic on Vegas Drive, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said today.

Berkley met today with Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi to discuss constructing a full-service veterans hospital in Southern Nevada, and during the meeting he told her that a feasibility study was being done on replacing the clinic, which is on unstable ground.

Cracked concrete has been found around supports and pillars of the $16 million clinic, which opened in 1997. Officials believe the weight of the 160,000-square-foot building is putting too much pressure on its supports and structure.

Officials had planned to close the clinic in September and move into temporary facilities while the Vegas Drive building was repaired.

"The Addeliar Guy clinic may not be repairable. We may need to build a new one," Berkley said after the meeting, adding that the studies to determine that should be done by the end of the month. Other sites are being considered, she said.

If a new clinic is built, "It would be larger than the current facility and offer more services," Berkley said. "And if we put it on the fast track, it could be ready in 18 months."

The congresswoman and secretary also discussed short-term solutions to a shortage of specialty care at the Mike O'Callaghan Federal Hospital at Nellis Air Force Base, and Berkley said she continued to push for a full-service VA hospital.

"It was a good meeting -- they know our needs and we know their constraints," said Berkley, who sits on the Veterans' Affairs Committee.

"The VA seems to focus on enhancing shared facilities across the United States. They would like to see enhanced sharing of the O'Callaghan hospital. The issue is cost involved and congressional process. The congressional process would take several years."

Berkley said that she would accept an enhancement to O'Callaghan hospital as a short-term plan, "but I will continue to push for a separate hospital."

The O'Callaghan Hospital does not offer a full range of specialty care, including certain surgeries, forcing some veterans to get specialty surgery out of state.

Full-service hospitals are expensive. The Department of Veterans Affairs in recent years has focused on offering care in outpatient clinics, and hasn't constructed a new veterans hospital since 1991, when a $266 million VA hospital was completed in Detroit.

The VA currently is working on 55 facility projects at a cost of $650 million.

During a January visit to Las Vegas, Principi said the biggest drawback to meeting veterans health needs was that his $53 billion annual budget is not enough to renovate older buildings or meet the expansion of growing facilities let alone build new ones.

Berkley, who is running for her third House term, on Wednesday announced that the House had passed three veterans-related bills: to improve veterans health-care facilities, increase disability compensation and improve job training and placement.