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DESPITE EXPECTED NEED, BROCKTON VA RENTS
OUT SPACE -- Private psychiatric hospital
uses space for 45 beds.
This is happening at a number of VA
hospitals.
The VA in Portland, Oregon closed a
number of wards because they didn't have the staff and money to keep
them open. Now, they lease them to the hospital next door.
Story here...
http://ledger.southofboston.com/
articles/2007/03/29/news/news04.txt
Story below:
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Despite expected need, VA hospital rents out
space;
Veterans advocates predict surge in traumatized
vets
By SUE REINERT
The Patriot Ledger
With need for mental health treatment expected to soar as veterans
return from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Veterans Health Administration is
allowing a private psychiatric hospital to use space for 45 beds on its
Brockton hospital campus.
McLean Hospital of Belmont has leased the unit since 2004, veterans
administration spokeswoman Diane Keefe said. The lease expires next
year.
‘‘At this time we cannot say what will happen when the lease ends,’’
Keefe said. ‘‘It would be pure speculation.’’
A McLean official said the hospital hopes to renew the lease.
The McLean program serves teenagers and adults with private health
insurance, Medicare or Medicaid coverage.
It does not treat patients in the Veterans Health Administration system,
but some veterans with other forms of insurance have been patients,
senior vice president Dr. Philip Levendusky said.
McLean pays $474,080 a year in rent and an additional $254,710 for
utilities, security and housekeeping, Keefe said. The rent goes to the
Veterans Health Administration’s New England region, which includes five
hospitals and outpatient clinics.
Veterans and advocates have questioned the capacity of the Veterans
Health Administration system to care for an expected surge of
traumatized veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. More than
one-third of veterans seeking services from the health care system
report symptoms of mental illness or stress, the Associated Press
reported last fall.
In one case that has galvanized critics, a 25-year-old Iraq war veteran
from Minnesota committed suicide after he was put on a waiting list for
mental health services at his local veterans hospital.
Keefe said the Brockton hospital has added a psychologist to a program
that serves returning war veterans but has not added beds. There are 112
beds.
A construction project will require patients to shuffle among four
units. Drug and alcohol abuse patients must be treated in the locked
psychiatric wards during the next two years.
Any returning veteran who comes to the Boston veterans health care
system needing mental health services is seen immediately and evaluated,
Keefe said.
However, a planning study for the veterans agency found that even two
years ago, 25 percent of new patients in the Boston system waited longer
than a month to get treatment for post-traumatic syndrome disorder, one
of the most common illnesses afflicting returning veterans.
Rep. William Delahunt, D-Quincy, said the projections of declining
demand are ‘‘just absurd.’’
‘‘Do they realize there’s a war going on?’’ he said.
‘‘We are going to be overwhelmed by these returning veterans who,
according to reports that are coming back from Iraq, are experiencing
serious mental health issues, and we have to fund them.’’
But Levendusky said the space that McLean is renting ‘‘had been vacant
for an extended period of time. The Brockton facility had been built
after World War II for many thousands of people and at that point it did
have excess capacity.’’
Sue Reinert may be reached at
sreinert@ledger.com .
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Larry Scott --
