...for as long as it takes
WASHINGTON, D.C. - VA health care faces peril unless the VA implements recommendations of the General Accounting Office (GAO) to stop spending money on unneeded buildings and focus more on veterans, witnesses told a House subcommittee Wednesday.
Congressman Cliff Stearns (R-FL), chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Health, asked for the GAO analysis last year after expressing concerns over the VA's construction plans. VA officials announced willingness at the hearing to consider conforming its practices to GAO recommendations.
"Unless the VA reforms its capital asset management practices," Chairman Stearns said, citing the GAO study, "the VA health care system will spend billions of dollars over the next five years on hundreds of unneeded buildings. Given the aging hospitals, redundancy in many markets, and limited construction funding, Congress wants more strategic planning by the VA in managing its huge infrastructure. Instead, VA is spending one of every four dollars caring for too many buildings that are half-empty."
"Planning for VA's infrastructure is critical to the long-term viability of its health care system," stated Ranking Democratic Member Lane Evans (D-IL), "Indeed, we have a physical plant that is no longer in synch with modern health care delivery."
Dr. Daniel Winship, Dean of the Loyola University of Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, testified that the VA could "take a lesson from other health care systems in the rationalizing of health care. He called for the "elimination of duplications and redundancies by true consolidation of services and, yes, even closure of unneeded facilities," which would free funds for more "ambulatory sites for care."
Dr. Thomas Garthwaite, the VA's Deputy Under Secretary for Health, described the issues raised at the hearing as "the most challenging VA is facing today." He expressed "fundamental agreement" with the GAO, and announced plans to reform the spending practices GAO said took up 85 percent of VA's total capital spending. GAO criticized the spending projects as often misdirected and lacking any critical oversight. Dr. Garthwaite promised to review the proposed spending to make sure the VA didn't "sink money" into buildings it might vacate in a few years.
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