Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Home › News › Local News

On-off Fitzsimons plans on again?

VA to unveil latest idea for health complex Friday

By Lisa Ryckman, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 29, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

Text size  

Related Links

More Local News

More stories »

Seven years ago, a new veterans hospital was scheduled to be built at the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center.

Then it wasn't.

Then it was.

And now, maybe it actually will be.

On Friday, the VA expects to unveil the latest plans for a health care complex during a public forum held by U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar and U.S. Reps. Ed Perlmutter and Tom Tancredo, who will be hearing new details along with everyone else.

"We haven't seen a whole lot of specifics to know how it will affect the veterans' community," Salazar spokeswoman Steph anie Valencia said.

"We want to hear directly from the veterans and hear their concerns and have the VA hear them. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that veterans receive the highest quality of care."

The latest plan, which reflects a new focus on expanding care in outlying areas, calls for a state- of-the-art VA Ambulatory Health Care Center at Fitzsi mons, including primary and specialty care, outpatient surgery and a nursing home care unit. The VA would share two new towers with the University of Colorado, one with in-patient beds and the other devoted to research.

Sophisticated demographics have made it possible to pinpoint exactly where veterans are in the four-state Rocky Mountain region - Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Utah - and which services they need most, said Lee Logan, the deputy VA network director.

"That lets us plan for some veterans to get care closer to home rather than having to travel to Denver," she said.

"It lets us meet their needs in their communities as much as possible."

The revised plan includes more outpatient services, home health care and telemedicine - consultations by telephone or Internet - to reduce the demands on the Denver facility, Logan said. It will also expand services in Colorado Springs, Grand Junction, and cities in Wyoming and Montana.

That means fewer beds in Denver, which has made some veterans' groups unhappy. The Mountain States Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, which represents more than 600 veterans in four states, opposes the VA's idea of replacing a 30-bed spinal cord injury center proposed earlier with an eight-bed clinic.

"There's a difference between having an actual spinal cord center and just some beds that spinal cord-injured veterans can use," said Laura Holman, the group's government relations director. "A center comes with a whole variety of services. Now they have to travel to Albuquerque or Long Beach (Calif.) or Seattle to receive special care for SCI. If the ultimate goal is to serve veterans closer to home, then it doesn't make sense to eliminate the SCI center."

James Bobick, president of the United Veterans Committee of Colorado, which represents more than 70 veterans groups, said that the groups are open to considering changes in everything except timing for the project, which was approved in 2001, scrapped in 2004 and revived again last year.

"Our main concern," he said, "is that there not be any further delay in giving us a regional hospital."

Public forum

* Sen. Ken Salazar and U.S. Reps Ed Perlmutter and Tom Tancredo, along with Veterans Administration officials, are holding a public forum to unveil the latest Fitzsimons hospital plans and allow veterans to ask questions. Seating is limited.

When: 1 p.m. Friday

Where: Anschutz Outpatient Pavillion, 1635 Ursula St., Aurora