LR-area VA units tout health care strides

Administrators at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System said Thursday that adding staff and offering more services in rural communities have led to improvements in providing timely health care to veterans.

To better serve veterans moving forward, the health care system intends to hire more medical specialists and improve its facilities' infrastructure, the administrators said.

Five directors of the health care system, which includes the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock, the Eugene J. Towbin Healthcare Center in North Little Rock and eight community-based outpatient clinics, discussed changes they've made in the past year during a news conference held Thursday as part of a nationwide outreach effort.

"We're listening to our veterans and what they would like to see happen, and we're moving forward with what Arkansas veterans want," said Dr. Margie Scott, interim medical center director for the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System. "If they see or identify a problem, we want to know about it because we want to fix it."

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs instructed that each of its medical centers, regional benefits offices and cemeteries highlight their achievements and ongoing challenges to their local communities. The instruction came one year after Robert McDonald was appointed as VA secretary and after the revelation of long delays at VA facilities and attempts to hide the delays.

Since the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act was passed last year, Arkansas veterans have fared slightly better than veterans nationwide in getting timely health care.

In April, data from the VA showed approximately 2.8 percent of care-seeking veterans nationwide waited at least 31 days for nonemergency care. About 2.6 percent of Arkansas veterans waited longer than 31 days at the state's VA hospitals and clinics.

According to information provided at the conference Thursday, that number has dropped to 2.02 percent for veterans served by the central Arkansas system. Currently, 3 percent of veterans nationwide are waiting more than 30 days. Dr. Tina McClain, acting chief of staff for the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, said the system is also on track to schedule 29,000 more appointments in fiscal 2015 than in fiscal 2014.

"Little Rock wasn't too terrible to begin with, but it's even better now," McClain said. "So, that's a positive."

Part of the decrease in wait times was the result of establishing more services at community-based outpatient clinics so veterans don't have to travel to Little Rock or North Little Rock, Scott said. Eye care and audiology were recently added to the Conway clinic. Physical therapy was added to the list of services at clinics in Hot Springs and Russellville.

Scott said more services will be added to other clinics in the future.

An effort to hire more staff members as well as projects to expand the state's facilities also are expected to decrease the length of time veterans must wait for care, she said.

With funds from the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act, the central Arkansas system added 73 medical staff members and is planning to hire 50 more.

About $1.9 million allocated by that legislation also is being used to construct six operating rooms at John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital, said the system's associate director, Cyril Ekeh. The rooms are expected to be ready in about two years.

Scott said the increase in operating rooms would "expand the number of surgical cases we can perform each day."

"We have a huge volume of surgical services we offer here," Scott said. "This is a tremendous upgrade."

The federal VA agency also approved two other construction projects at the Eugene J. Towbin Healthcare Center that will be paid for with regular funding.

A design has been submitted for a $9.3 million building in which Arkansas veterans can be treated for substance-abuse disorders. There also are preliminary plans to construct an $8.7 million facility that will house primary care services. Both projects are estimated to take two years to complete.

"As you know, as the demand for health care services increases, it creates the need for expansion," Ekeh said.

Metro on 08/28/2015

Upcoming Events