VA HOSPITALS: NEW NORTHERN CALIFORNIA FACILITY SCRAPPED
The Department of Veterans Affairs is halting "plans for aThis is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
$211 million, 243-bed hospital at Travis Air Force Base" in
Northern California, San Francisco Chronicle reports (Goodyear,
9/11). Washington Post reports that the VA, "[f]aced with two
critical studies" on the proposed hospital, "made a rare retreat
and informed Congress [yesterday] it will drop plans for the
hospital." Last year, the General Accounting Office said the
Travis facility was "unnecessary" and that "even the outpatient
facility the VA had suggested for the base was too large." That
finding was backed up this year by a separate, congressionally
mandated study of the issue conducted by Price Waterhouse
(McAllister, 9/12).
EARTHQUAKE!
The VA proposed the Travis hospital after it was forced to
close its Martinez facility in 1991 due to earthquake damage.
However, the Price Waterhouse review conducted this year noted
that "inpatient bed need will fall 40% between 1996 and 2020
because of the shrinking veterans population." The study
recommended that the VA "use McClellan Hospital at Mather Air
Force Base in Sacramento instead of" building the Travis
hospital, which would have been located in Fairfield. A source
"close to the talks" over the decision said Wednesday that the VA
"has offered to increase the number of beds it uses at the base's
David Grant Medical Center from 55 to 100 and add staff."
Separately, Rep. George Miller (D-CA) said that the VA "has
recommended that a medical center at Vallejo's Mare Island be
turned into an outpatient clinic" for veterans (San Francisco
Chronicle, 9/11).
TIMES HAVE CHANGED
Washington Post reports that following the GOP takeover of
Congress in 1995, Republicans began to question "the VA's
philosophy of continuing to build large hospitals at a time when
the veteran population is falling." At the same time, VA
Undersecretary for Health Kenneth Kizer also began to question
the reliance on hospitals, arguing that "it is cheaper and more
medically effective to treat veterans through outpatient
clinics." Regarding Travis specifically, Kizer also noted that
more than half of California's hospital beds are empty.
Yesterday's decision drew criticism from veterans groups and
others. Rep. Frank Riggs (R-CA), whose district contains Travis,
noted that President Clinton supported the Travis facility during
his 1996 campaign and Vice President Al Gore had broken ground
for it in 1994. "It's time for the president and vice president
to put their money where their mouths were during the campaign
season and reverse the wrong-headed recommendations of their
Veterans Administration," he said (9/12).