Mistakes again delay opening of North Little Rock vets home

The opening of Arkansas' new veterans home has again been postponed because parts of the facility remain out of compliance with regulators' standards.

Leaders at the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs expected the Arkansas State Veterans Home at North Little Rock to begin accepting residents last fall, but they moved the projected opening date to December after construction delays.

The agency took ownership of the home last month, but it failed to meet the requirements to begin housing veterans. The projected opening date was again pushed back, that time to Jan. 3, but the Arkansas Veterans Commission on Tuesday was told that the home may not open for several more weeks.

"If they really hump it, I'm hoping to admit before the end of this month," Lindsey Clyburn, the home's administrator, said.

The $24 million project is the first facility in the state built specifically to serve aging and disabled veterans. The state VA operates a similar home in Fayetteville, but it's housed in part of an old hospital.

The North Little Rock home utilizes a "HomeStyle" design, which comes with its own set of regulations intended to remove the institutionalized feel of traditional nursing homes.

Those special requirements have resulted in some construction mistakes. The wrong smoke doors were installed. A standard call-light system was implemented instead of the required wireless system. Only some rooms were outfitted with lifts to transport disabled residents from bed to the bathroom.

In some rooms, the beds were too large to fit through the door once assembled, so evacuation equipment had to be purchased in case an immobile veteran needed to be removed from the room.

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The new call-light system and lift tracks were both ordered after the start of the new year, according to purchasing orders and emails obtained under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, and the agency is waiting for them to be delivered and installed.

The mistakes have contributed to the project exceeding its budget by about 1.4 percent, or $330,000, said Karen Watkins, the agency's chief financial officer. She said that being 1.4 percent over budget wasn't bad for such a large project.

Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, which managed the project, credited the agency with $106,389 for mistakes on the project, Watkins said. The firm also waived its basic design fee (about $108, 400) for costs related to unexpected rock excavation work and a miscalculation related to the cost of paying construction workers, who were paid the federal rate rather than state rate because the facility benefits from federal funding.

Agency leaders blamed other delays on changing inspection guidelines from North Little Rock and the Office of Long Term Care, a wing of the Arkansas Department of Human Services that regulates nursing homes.

"The Office of Long Term Care apparently told Polk Stanley Wilcox to use the HomeStyle [regulations] as loose guidelines, not as the Bible," Watkins told commissioners Tuesday. "So there have been some issues with interpretation, and as a result, we've had a lot of last-minute issues come up with things that the Office of Long Term Care is now requiring that three years ago were not a bold requirement."

Matt Snead, director of the state VA, added that the Office of Long Term Care "changed the fact that we needed to add lifts to all the rooms."

DHS spokesman Brandi Hinkle, however, said the department's regulations are not simply guidelines, and that they haven't changed since 2006.

"It very clearly states that there must be tracks for each resident," Hinkle said.

Clyburn, the home administrator, said the veterans agency has been in daily contact with the six residents who have been approved to move into the home. Some, he said, have already visited and picked out rooms.

Once open, the home will accept the six residents over the course of three weeks, and all six will pay privately.

Then, the state VA plans to apply for Medicare, Medicaid and reimbursements from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The eight-cottage facility will eventually house 96 residents divided equally among the cottages.

Metro on 01/18/2017

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