Everything is on the table as VA reviews healthcare setup
The US Department of Veterans Affairs is considering closing a VA clinic on Causeway Street and merging the Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury campuses into one facility.
This scenario is part of an initiative to reorganize the VA Boston Healthcare System and, officials say, streamline and modernize the region's four medical centers in Brockton, Bedford, Jamaica Plain, and West Roxbury.
No final decisions have been made, and the public has until tomorrow to offer opinions before a report is given to the veterans affairs secretary, who will make the decision.
"We hope to have a decision by the end of October," said Jay Halpern, special assistant to outgoing Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson.
Several restructuring plans are on the table:
Relocate ambulatory surgical services from Jamaica Plain to the West Roxbury campus; the VA outpatient clinic at 251 Causeway St. would close, and its services would move to Jamaica Plain.
Close the West Roxbury campus and Causeway Street clinic, and move those services to the Jamaica Plain campus. Three new buildings would be constructed on the Jamaica Plain campus.
Close the Jamaica Plain campus and move its services to West Roxbury, and move the Causeway Street clinic to another location in downtown Boston. In West Roxbury, two multistory additions would be built to accommodate the additional patients. (There are also plans to move services from Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford to the Brockton VA campus.)
Keep open all four VA medical centers in Bedford, Brockton, Jamaica Plain, and West Roxbury.
The future of the region's VA medical centers has been in limbo since 2003, when the VA embarked on a nationwide effort to streamline its facilities and lease out unused property. As part of this initiative, known as Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services, or CARES, the VA awarded a $10.5 million contract to PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct studies of VA facilities at 18 sites across the country.
At one point in 2005, there was talk of closing the VA medical centers in Bedford, Brockton, Jamaica Plain, and West Roxbury, and building a VA medical megacomplex in Boston. That plan is no longer being considered.
PricewaterhouseCoopers issued a report in July that describes the potential uses of the West Roxbury and Jamaica Plain VA campuses. The report suggested that if the West Roxbury campus closed, the property could be redeveloped into a 35,000-square-foot retail shopping center at the intersection of VFW Parkway and Spring Street. The ground floor of the main building at Jamaica Plain could be developed into 15,000 square feet of retail space. The Bedford campus could be redeveloped into senior housing and assisted living facilities for people with Alzheimer's disease, according to the report.
The Veterans Affairs Department is in a unique position to consider these options because it is one of the few federal agencies authorized to enter leases with private companies. In April 2005, the VA awarded a $60.5 million contract to MicroTech LLC to provide assistance with "enhanced-use lease" projects that benefit the VA.
When the various restructuring proposals were discussed at a Sept. 17 public hearing in Boston, many veterans and local officials said they did not want to see any VA medical facilities closed; if anything, they would like to have more built.
Richard J. Hand Jr., legislative officer for the American Legion Post 147 in Rockland, criticized the VA's overall restructuring initiative, and questioned the focus on renovating or consolidating all four VA facilities simultaneously.
"Why do all four at once?" he asked at the hearing. "Large amounts of cash are being spent on these CARES studies. This process goes against everything the United States of America stands for. . . . All the praises and flag-waving aren't cutting it. We need more [services], not less."
US Representative John F. Tierney, a Democrat from Salem, also questioned the CARES process. Tierney noted a recent Government Accountability Office report that found that the VA does not centrally track or monitor the results of its CARES decisions.
Tierney's prepared testimony, as it appears on his website, states: "The question is begged: If VA is not monitoring the implementation of the current CARES decisions, what data do they have to support the claim that 'synergies' or 'more enhancement' may result if Bedford's unique programs are transferred to Brockton?"
Tierney also expressed "our adamant support for maintaining services at Bedford and the other existing VA campuses."
The public can submit comments to the VA online at va.gov/cares. The public comment period ends tomorrow.
Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com. 