Hospital may avoid big cuts

Officials at the Spokane VA Medical Center don't expect a massive restructuring in the veterans medical system announced in Washington, D.C., Thursday to have much impact here.

"We don't expect any major surprises that we didn't already suspect or were planing for," associate director Jane Schilke said.

Elsewhere, hospitals could close as a result of the Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services project.

An independent nine-member commission will make recommendations to the Department of Veterans Affairs in August 2003. Decisions will be made after analyzing demographics and services. The overhaul was recommended by government auditors in 1999.

"It's really focused on areas where they have excess capacity, that were built for 50 years ago for the World War II veterans," Schilke said.

The Chicago metropolitan area, for example, has four VA facilities and a shrinking population of vets, she said.

The Spokane VA hospital serves about 17,000 vets a year and has a $60million budget, Schilke said. There are 100,000 vets in the hospital's 60,000-square-mile service area.

Like civilian hospitals, the VA hospital has seen overnight stays decline during the past decade, following the trend toward more outpatient procedures and pharmaceutical treatments, Schilke said. The hospital has adapted to that trend with remodeling projects.

The hospital also sends a bus outfitted with two exam rooms to reach vets in Bonners Ferry, Moses Lake, Lewiston, Idaho, and Libby, Mont.

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