Share
Veterans and employees of Salisbury VA Medical Center are protesting plans to discontinue emergency and surgical care at the main hospital that has served Charlotte area veterans for more than 50 years.
The plan is on hold pending a review prompted by questions from N.C. congressional leaders.
“There's no reason for this to happen,” said Vietnam veteran Zane Robertson of Salisbury. “It's just another way to throw taxpayers' money away.”
The VA's justification is that it will allow veterans to get medical care at private hospitals closer to home.
“I don't have any problems with that,” Robertson said, “but don't shut down a hospital that's working.”
In mid-September, the W.G. “Bill” Hefner VA Medical Center announced plans to take a “new strategic direction” by focusing on mental health and long-term care. VA officials said the agency would pay for veterans to get emergency care and surgery at hospitals in Charlotte, Winston-Salem and Greensboro, where many veterans live. Salisbury is about 40 miles north of Charlotte.
How this could affect veterans remains unclear. The VA has not provided details. Some critics wonder if it could mean longer waits for emergency care at local hospitals and higher out-of-pocket costs.
In September, Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., and Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., raised concerns to Veterans Affairs Secretary Dr. James Peake. In response, Peake stopped the changes pending a staff review, which is due soon.
Watt said he was “hit cold” by the announcement.
“Theoretically, it sounds like they're trying to do what is in the best interest of veterans,” Watt said. “But we don't live in a theoretical world.”
Community hospitals “have stresses of their own in meeting the needs of the patients they already have,” Watt said. “The notion that we would add to their burden just doesn't seem viable….(Veterans) would be sitting in emergency rooms for hours.”
Two years ago, revelations about substandard care and questionable deaths at the Salisbury VA led Watt to call for a congressional hearing on the problems. Since then, the hospital has spent millions of dollars updating surgical and intensive care units and recruiting top-quality doctors.
VA officials said the new operating rooms can still be used for outpatient surgery. But Watt said, “You don't go and spend a lot of money on something and then close it down.”
‘Excellent doctors'
Robertson, 62, who is disabled from neuropathy and vision loss due to diabetes, said he gets all of his care at the Salisbury VA. “I've got excellent doctors. I get excellent care.”
He said he's getting conflicting answers about whether care at community hospitals will cost veterans more than the VA hospital.
Watt and Dole have also raised questions about job losses and about the financial impact for veterans.
Salisbury's director Carolyn Adams has assured employees there will be no job cuts. But Watt said, “I can't see how they could go forward with this without having an impact on jobs.”
In letters to Watt and Dole, Peake said he would “ensure that the clinical needs of your state's veterans are fully satisfied.”
Chris Walker, a spokesman for Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said his understanding is that, if the changes are made, veterans won't pay more for their care at non-VA hospitals.
Walker said Burr is “keeping an open mind” about the proposal. “If there's a better way to provide care for veterans, he's going to listen to it,” Walker said.
A shift to regional care
VA officials say the proposed changes are based on a study by Booz Allen Hamilton, a Virginia-based consulting firm. The firm found that most veterans who get care at the Salisbury VA live in the Charlotte, Winston-Salem and Greensboro areas.
While consultants considered the idea of building a new Salisbury VA hospital, they instead recommended that the VA contract with non-VA hospitals for inpatient care and surgery at hospitals closer to where the majority of veterans live.
The Salisbury VA would retain long-term care and outpatient services while becoming a “center of excellence” in mental health.
The consultants also recommend expanding VA outpatient clinics in Charlotte and Winston-Salem to accommodate the growing number of veterans, including many who have moved here to retire. The VA plans to add outpatient surgery and dental services at Charlotte and Winston-Salem clinics, which now offer primary and mental health care.
Officials with Carolinas HealthCare System, Novant Health and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center said their hospitals will work with the VA to take care of veterans.
Spencer Lilly, president of Carolinas Medical Center-University, said his hospital near UNC Charlotte already has a contract with the VA to provide colonoscopies for veterans. The 130-bed hospital has extra capacity – its average daily census is 70 patients and its nine operating rooms are used 60 percent of the time.
Doug Atkinson, vice president of business development at Wake Forest, said his hospital has a long-term relationship with the Salisbury VA and will be willing to contract to provide more services for veterans. But he said the announcement about potential changes could have been smoother for VA employees and veterans. “It just seems like there's a breakdown of communications,” he said. “What doesn't do any good is to create animosity.”
Essie Hogue, president of the local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the news “came as a shock.” A VA nurse for 30 years, she said the timing is bad as veterans are losing jobs.
“This is going to hurt veterans,” she said. “They feel comfortable with the care they get here. They need their own hospital. We have it. Why throw it away?”
Karen Garloch: 704-358-5078.
