Officials hail proposal for VA hospital in Las Vegas

Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2003 | 5:35 a.m.

LAS VEGAS - A southern Nevada Veterans Affairs official and a lawmaker are praising a federal proposal to build a full-service hospital and a nursing home in the Las Vegas area.

"This is a very exciting time for veterans," said John Hempel, director of the VA's health care system in southern Nevada. "The need for more veterans care in southern Nevada is long overdue."

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., a leader of the effort to get a full VA hospital in the Las Vegas area, called Monday's Department of Veterans Affairs proposal "a major breakthrough."

Along with an 81-bed hospital to replace a crumbling clinic, the VA is proposing a 120-bed southern Nevada nursing home as part of a nationwide restructuring aimed at building in fast-growing areas and shrinking underused facilities.

The proposal also calls for a hospital in Orlando, Fla., and specialized centers in Biloxi, Miss., Long Beach, Calif., Denver, Minneapolis, upstate New York and Little Rock, Ark.

Proposing to close hospitals in seven cities is expected to draw opposition from some members of Congress.

The VA proposal now goes before a 15-member commission appointed by Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi. The panel plans hearings including one Sept. 26 at the Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas in Henderson.

Principi is expected to make a decision by the end of the year, when he submits the VA's capital expense plans.

Dan Mahoney, an Air Force retiree and a member of a Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in North Las Vegas, expressed skepticism about the plan.

"I'll believe it when I see it," he said.

The VA already was planning an outpatient clinic to replace the crumbling Addeliar Guy clinic in Las Vegas.

"What this is saying is that ... because of the projected growth in demand for our services, the time has come to seriously look at putting everything on one campus and having a separate, stand-alone medical center," Hempel said.

He said that by 2012, the number of hospital beds needed to serve the region's veterans will increase by 56 percent, while clinic visits are expected to grow by 65 percent, to about 684,000 a year.

The VA last year sent 1,500 Nevada veterans to facilities in Southern California for services that couldn't be provided locally.

Hempel said that by adding specialists in Las Vegas, the VA hopes to cut California referrals in half this year.

Chad Avery, a lifetime member of a Vietnam Veterans of America chapter in southern Nevada, put the number of veterans living in the area at 250,000. That would be almost 17 percent of the area's 1.5 million residents.

Health care for veterans has been spread around Las Vegas since the VA cited building flaws and moved out of the Guy clinic this year to 11 temporary satellite sites.

Building owner Moreland Corp. disputes VA findings that the Addeliar Guy building has structural damage.

The VA had moved in 1997 into the Guy clinic, where 35,400 patients were treated last year.

Hempel said 41,000 veterans are currently enrolled for health care in southern Nevada, and 38,000 will receive treatment at a VA clinic this year.

Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal