Full-service VA hospital in the works for Southern Nevada

Suzanne Struglinski

Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2003 | 11:13 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Las Vegas may get a new, full-service veterans hospital and nursing home based on a proposal the Veterans Affairs Department made Monday.

The new facilities would provide a "full continuum of all care (veterans) don't currently have to the degree that we need it," John Hempel, director of the VA's health care system in Southern Nevada, said.

Plans include a 120-bed nursing home and 81-bed hospital, based on the VA's patient projections for Las Vegas, Hempel said.

The new additions are part of the administration's efforts to get rid of outdated and underutilized facilities while focusing on putting new services in areas with growing populations. The plan closes seven hospitals in New York, Texas, Ohio, California, Mississippi, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, but Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla., will get new hospitals.

The proposal still needs review by a VA commission and final approval by Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi.

By 2012 the VA expects 63,000 of the projected 240,000 veterans living in Southern Nevada to seek treatment from VA services, which current facilities could not manage, Hempel said. In 2002 VA health-care systems treated about 35,800 patients in Southern Nevada, of an estimated 200,000 population, he said.

Right now veterans not able to get care are referred to other hospitals. In past years about 1,500 veterans had to go to Southern California to get care, but Hempel said this year that should be down to between 750 and 1,000.

A 15-member commission, appointed by Principi, will review the plan and take public comments. A public hearing is set for 10 a.m. Sept. 26 at the Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas in Henderson. The commission will recommend a final plan to Principi for him to accept or reject as a whole.

Principi spoke with Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and the rest of the Nevada delegation late last week, according to Berkley's chief of staff Richard Urey. Prinicipi said the needs of the Las Vegas area will be fully met, according to Berkley's office.

"It is my understanding that we are in a good position to have the secretary recommend a medical campus for veterans to include the full-service hospital, a multi-specialty outpatient clinic and a long-term care facility for aging vets," Berkley said in a statement. She called the recommendation a "major breakthrough in health services for Southern Nevada's veterans."

Hempel said it is unclear at this time how this proposal will affect current plans to replace the Addeliar D. Guy III Ambulatory Care Clinic, which closed in June. The $16 million center, which open in 1997 on Martin Luther King Boulevard, was in disrepair and services are now spread out among 15 temporary locations in the Las Vegas Valley.

Hempel said the plan announced Monday could mean that a new clinic, as proposed, is not the solution, even though some preliminary plans had been started. He said a site had not been selected and no contracts awarded.

"If we need to shift our focus, we can do it with minimal impact, and we're glad to do it," Hempel said.

The nursing home would be a 95,000-square-foot facility, which Hempel said would help satisfy the "single greatest unmet clinical need for veterans." Hempel said the home would be a wonderful assets and called in the "most exciting part" of the proposal.