Denver hospital best it can be, veteran says
Dick Foster, Rocky Mountain News
Published March 3, 2007 at midnight
The Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Denver is aging and small, but its medical services generally meet with the approval of its patients, the past president of a veterans' coalition said Friday.
"The facilities are clean and they're painted. It's been renovated over the years and it's about the best you can do with a facility that old, I think," said Ken Melcher, a disabled Vietnam veteran and past president of the United Veterans Council in Denver.
The 750,000-square-foot center at Ninth Avenue and Clermont Street is about 55 years old, with about 225 beds and a number outpatient clinics.
The VA plans to build a new $646 million facility next to the new University of Colorado Medical Center at the old Fitzsimons Army Medical Center campus in Aurora.
The new center, proposed for completion in 2012, would be 1.4 million square feet, nearly double the size of the current medical center.
President Bush's proposed 2008 budget, yet to be taken up by Congress, contains the first spending, $61.3 million for land purchase.
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