Veterans making another push for Valley VA hospital

HARLINGEN — Doctors were still digging shrapnel out of Ramiro Galvan’s legs nearly 30 years after he was hit by a mortar blast in Vietnam.

The mortar blew off his calf and sent Galvan in and out of service hospitals for several months before he was discharged in 1970.

The 63-year-old San Benito resident returned home to Cameron County, where he has counted his blessings ever since that his injuries weren’t much worse.

He has severe arthritis, high blood pressure and a list of ailments that affect other men his age, he said earlier this month while visiting a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Harlingen. Other Rio Grande Valley veterans — including some he has campaigned with to bring a full-service VA hospital to the area — can’t claim to have similar health.

“They’re messed up and can’t make the trip” to San Antonio to visit the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital, he said. “Some of them need (a hospital) more than me.”

More than 100,000 veterans in South Texas are closer to their dream of a veterans hospital here.

Voters statewide will consider a constitutional amendment Nov. 3 that gives Texas the option of partnering with the federal government to build veterans hospitals, a measure designed to bring a hospital here.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, again filed legislation in Washington this year to authorize the VA to construct a facility and submit reports to Congress outlining its costs and timeline.

At the same time, the VA is proceeding with plans to split the Valley, Corpus Christi and Laredo off from its San Antonio-based hospital system by 2011 and give the region its own director, its own budget and its own office in Harlingen.

The VA has taken steps to reduce trips to San Antonio by signing contracts with local hospitals to provide inpatient and emergency care to Valley veterans. Officials estimate the move eliminated the need for 95 percent of the trips, which can take as long as five hours each way by car.

Most veterans now report they’re making fewer trips to San Antonio, said Homer Gallegos, the chairman of the Veterans Alliance of South Texas. But area veterans haven’t lost sight of what they still want even after fighting for and winning a new health center in Harlingen with dental care a few years ago.

“We’ve come a long ways from those days,” he said. “We’ve taken little steps, but one of these days, we’ll take the giant one we want.”

PROPOSITION 8

Valley veterans like Gallegos are touting Proposition 8 as their best chance yet to land a hospital.

The constitutional amendment gives the state authority to contribute money, property or other resources to establish, maintain and operate veterans hospitals.

Allowing the state to pitch in resources through land donations or construction costs gives Texas’ congressional delegation the leverage it needs to push the VA to fund its operation, said Emilio De Los Santos, director of veterans services in Hidalgo County.

A number of key elected officials, including Gov. Rick Perry, have endorsed the measure.

“The proposition is of utmost importance to get passed,” De Los Santos said. “It motivates the federal government to roll up their sleeves, meet with the state and see how they can get it done.”

UNTIL THEN

Even without a local hospital, the VA Texas Coastal Bend Health Care System wants to eliminate most of the trips area veterans make to San Antonio for VA health services, said Jeff Milligan, the director of the Valley’s new veterans health care system.

The department has implemented measures to provide veterans access to locally based hospital care and outpatient services and is projecting 15,000 visits to San Antonio will be eliminated next year through the new services, he said. Veterans are expected to make fewer than 1,000 trips to that city, with most of those for specialty services or because they want to visit a specific doctor.

The new services haven’t come without a cost.

Since the contracts with Valley Baptist Health System and South Texas Health System started in April, the VA has received 1,500 claims from veterans using those hospitals.

The department has processed about 700 of them for payments totaling $2 million.

Milligan said the VA will carefully watch the costs for the five-year contracts to see if they show the VA can save money by providing services itself.

Thus far, the department is following recommendations from a study it commissioned in 2007.

Despite veterans’ vocal support for a hospital, the study team that reviewed their needs didn’t recommend building a hospital in the Valley.

The study found a need for about 20 inpatient beds for Valley veterans by 2015, and fewer by 2025 — barely enough to warrant building a small hospital that would be unable to provide the full array of inpatient services routinely required.

Instead, the study concluded the best option was for the VA to contract with local hospitals to provide inpatient services and expand its Harlingen office to provide a full spectrum of outpatient services.

The department started contracts with the hospitals in April, the same month it broke ground on a 120,000-square-foot outpatient clinic that the study said should meet the needs of most veterans.

Milligan, who hosts regular meetings with veterans, said one benefit of making the Valley a stand-alone system is the stronger communication between veterans and the VA.

“They made a strong case for the need for expanded services in the Valley,” he said. “And they were correct: There has been a need.”

FEDERAL SUPPORT

A veterans hospital in the Valley won’t become a reality just because Proposition 8 is passed or costs for the VA to provide contract services continue to grow.

At some point, Congress has to approve it.

Rep. Ortiz introduced a bill in February to authorize the secretary of veterans affairs to construct a hospital in South Texas. The bill, like others Ortiz introduced in previous years, has not moved from a House subcommittee.

A Senate companion bill by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, also hasn’t left committee.

Ortiz, a veteran himself and a staunch advocate of a hospital in South Texas, said veterans in his district are happy with actions the VA is taking to reduce their travel.

He’s watching Proposition 8 to see if the department can partner with state agencies like the University of Texas, perhaps through a teaching hospital, he said. He also asks veterans groups to host enrollment fairs to boost the number of veterans signed up for services in the growing region.

Ortiz said he will continue to submit his legislation for a hospital in South Texas, adding “it’s a matter of time” before it’s built.

“For the time being, they seem to be satisfied” with the new services, he said of area veterans. “But these guys fought hard, and they put themselves in harm’s way. They deserve what they earned, and that’s a veterans hospital.”

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Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.