A leader of Veterans Affairs in Colorado faced more questions Thursday night about improving patient care and the long-awaited hospital in Aurora.
The director of the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System said the hospital doesn't have an inpatient place to treat patients with PTSD right now. It will have fewer surgery rooms than the current hospital as well as fewer exam rooms.
The VA said even though the new hospital is bigger, more space is taken up with private rooms so veterans don't have to share like they do now, saying in some cases there are as many as three patients to a room.
There will also be a new spinal chord injury center.
At a Thursday town hall, leaders said part of the solution is more projects, including expanding an Aurora clinic and opening a new clinic in Castle Rock, to help take care of veterans in the community they live in, said Sallie Houser-Hanfelder, the director.
But that funding for these additional projects doesn't exist at the moment. The VA's been waiting to see what budget Congress passes.
Until those facilities are up and running, Houser-Hanfelder said they'll work with community partners, other hospitals, and clinics to make sure veterans are getting the care they need and fill any gaps.
For the time being, there will be seven primary care teams who can also address mental health care at the Denver VA hospital. And while all their facilities will have out-patient PTSD treatment, the residential program will stay in Denver for now.
The bid to move it to a free-standing facility on the Aurora campus came in over budget. The VA is waiting to see if Congress will pass legislation to expand that budget.
The Denver hospital could stay open for as long as another three years, overlapping with the new Aurora hospital set to open in August.
The Aurora hospital is $1 billion over budget.
As for staffing, Houser-Hanfelder said there is a 15 percent vacancy rate across the area she oversees and acknowledged it's hard to recruit in part because of the competition in the Denver area, which is why they are offering more incentives to recruit employees.