August 2003 - CARES Commission, appointed by the VA to evaluate all VA health care facilities, comes to Fort Wayne to share findings and possible closure of local 26-bed VA inpatient unit.
May 2004 - VA CARES Commission's recommendations to close the Fort Wayne VA inpatient unit, saving $2.1 million annually, as well as other VA facilities, accepted by then U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi, Congress and President Bush.
June 2004 - Veterans testify against hospital's closure at 3 1/2 -hour town hall meeting sponsored by Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd District.
July 2004 - Veterans for Better Health Care, a grassroots veteran organization, forms to lobby against hospital's closure. Then-City Councilman Dr. Tom Hayhurst leads the efforts.
August 2004 - Top VA officials come to Fort Wayne to hear testimony from veterans in the region on need for keeping inpatient services as well as specialized outpatient services in Fort Wayne. VA officials say local hospital does not meet the minimum 30 beds that are needed for economic feasibility.
November 2004 - Souder inserts a provision in a House bill on VA health programs that calls for a halt to scheduled VA closings in Fort Wayne and other communities, with further review of them.
February 2005 - Local veterans receiving cancer treatment are increasingly referred to Indianapolis for care; VANIHCS director Dr. Michael Murphy steps down.
July 2005 - VA officials acknowledge incorrect data used in feasibility study of VANIHCS because the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with reservists and National Guard members called into active duty, were not accounted for; VA says another study will be done.
January 2006 - Cathy Spivey-Paul, new director for VANIHCS, says Fort Wayne campus in the next study will be separated from Marion campus, also part of VANIHCS; second study to be done in spring of 2006.
September 2006 - Department of Veteran Affairs creates a “small hospital” category of 25-bed minimum, giving more hope for retaining the Fort Wayne inpatient unit.
November 2006 - Town hall meeting on VA hospital's future held at Memorial Coliseum, drawing more than 300 veterans.
February 2007 - Local VA officials say more than 3,000 area veterans have served in Afghanistan or Iraq.
March 2007 - On the national front, Department of Defense blasted for poor care at some military hospitals; federal officials promise more funding and improvements; mental health problems and suicides on the rise among military members who have served in the Middle East.
August 2007 - Booz Allen Hamilton's report on Fort Wayne VA inpatient services still not released.
February - Veterans Administration announces still another study to be done on Fort Wayne VA health services, this one on outpatient care.
March - Souder receives the earlier Booz Allen Hamilton report on local inpatient services, but 75 percent of the report is redacted, giving almost no usable information.
April - More than 400 veterans, many angry and discouraged at lack of information on the VA hospital's future, gather at Souder-sponsored town hall meeting at Auburn's World War II Victory Museum.
October - Booz Allen Hamilton report on local outpatient VA services due to national VA officials.
By Jennifer L. Boen
Findings from the latest feasibility study on current and future need of services at the Fort Wayne campus of VA Northern Indiana Healthcare Systems (VANIHCS) are expected to be in the hands of top Veterans Administration officials soon, Rep. Mark Souder said Monday. The report by contractor Booz Allen Hamilton was due Monday, and Souder said the next step is for the findings and recommendations to go to the VA's Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR) for review of technical correctness.
This study, commissioned by the VA in February, was to look in detail at current and future need of outpatient services at the local facility, 2121 Lake Ave. But Souder said the newer study will also have to take into account the previous one, commissioned in 2006 to look at inpatient services, because so much of the previous one was “unacceptable.”
“I know the official position is that this one is to study outpatient service, but are they just going to take the 25 percent that was acceptable and leave the other 75 percent unresolved and put that with the new report? I think it's really looking at outpatient services at the current hospital and how to merge that with the inpatient study results of the first (study),” Souder said.
Experience with releasing such information by the VA has left veterans and the public waiting after deadlines have passed. The 2006 inpatient study results were to be released by summer 2007 but never really became public, Souder said, because “they had bad information, bad data and bad recommendations.”
According to the schedule for the latest study, the VA is to officially accept the Booz Allen Hamilton report Nov. 10, and Souder's goal is to have indication of the findings and recommendations by late November.
The VA has never suggested closing outpatient care in Fort Wayne, but the report could suggest any number of things. Among ideas Souder and VA officials have mentioned in the past for the Fort Wayne VA: relocating outpatient services to a more modern site; contracting with local public hospitals and physicians for services; and leasing or constructing a smaller building to house inpatient care. “In my opinion … I think they're going to recommend (the VA) lease space in a local facility, at Parkview or Lutheran,” most likely at the Parkview on Randallia campus, adjacent to the VA.
“Yes, there have been discussions and continue to be discussions,” with the VA, said Parkview spokesman John Perlich. “We certainly remain interested in working with them. We're hopeful that we'll be able to participate with them to keep as many veterans' health services as possible here.”
Parkview is moving specialty services to its new hospital at Interstate 69 and Dupont Road but is maintaining a small hospital with an ER and maternity services at the Randallia/East State Boulevard campus. Carew Medical Center, also near the VA hospital, is emptying out as physicians relocate to the north-side Parkview Regional Medical Center campus.
“I think that the existing (VA) hospital would become outpatient and that the VA would look at the entire campus area,” Souder said, with the potential of growing VA services, inpatient and outpatient, in leased space. “When I met with the employees at the VA hospital, they said, ‘If you expand the inpatient unit at this hospital, then what are we going to do with the growing outpatient demand?' ”
Gas prices, which will likely go up again when the economy stabilizes, make traveling to Indianapolis or Lansing, the two closest VA hospitals, unfeasible for veterans and their families.
“I believe the best option will probably be leasing space for inpatient care, probably at Randallia, or it could be up north,” he said, noting he hopes to have some answers by the end of November.
But in March, Dr. Gerald Cross, principal deputy undersecretary for health for the VA said the final decision on local VA inpatient and outpatient care will be made by the secretary of the VA, and then shared with Congress.
Note:The News-Sentinel reserves the right to remove any content appearing on its Web site. Our policy will be to remove postings that constitute profanity, obscenity, libel, spam, invasion of privacy, impersonation of another, or attacks on racial, ethnic or other groups.. For more information, see our user rules page.
RSS
