Orlando gets $650 million VA Hosptial

Though the city has enjoyed a rich connection to US Arm Forces in the past, to include the housing of a Naval Base, as well as a Base for B-52 bombers during the Cold War, Orlando Florida is only now receiving a much needed VA Hospital. Though the long wait should be worth it, giving that the Hospital will be a 1.2 million square foot facility that will serve a projected 400,000 veterans in the Central Florida area. The cost of the complex is estimated to be in the $650 million range, and the facility is slated to open in 2012.

This is great news to area veterans who for years have had to travel to various state facilities to take care of their medical needs. These locations have often been located a good distance from Orlando, and have ranged from outpatient clinics in Daytona Beach and Jacksonville to the VA hospital in Gainesville and St. Petersburg. Given the aging population of Central Florida veterans, the long distances have often become major challenges for vets in need of care. In fact, Orange County (home to the city of Orland) alone has close to 80,000 veterans, making the county the largest county in the nation without direct access to a VA hospital.

It was then amid a mix crowd of veterans, politicians, and local citizens, that a ground breaking ceremony was held in October of 2008. Location for the VA Hospital is near Lake Nona in South Orlando, where the facility will enjoy a close proximity to the University of Central Florida’s new Medical Center. The VA hospital will benefit from its close distance to UCF by being able to integrate research and direct treatment with the school’s Medical Center.

This new complex will include the following features:

• 134 Inpatient Beds
• ER diagnostic Imaging
• Laboratory
• Pharmacy
• Multispecialty Care Clinic
• 120 Bed Community Living
• 60 Bed Residential Rehab Center

In keeping with its Mission Statement and Vision, this new VA facility will help “honor America’s veterans by providing exceptional care that will improve veteran’s health and well-being.” To do so, the Center will rely on a committed staff that will make it their goal to be a “patient-centered” organization. Aside, from being able to offer veterans better health care, the VA Hospital will also be a back-up hospital during National emergencies, which given the area’s propensity for Hurricanes, is a much welcomed by product of housing the hospital.

General Eric K. Shinseki has last laugh

General Eric K. Shinseki spent almost four decades of service in the U.S Army. That distinguished career abruptly ended in 2003 when Shinseki, then Chief of Staff of the Army clashed with the Bush administration over the war in Iraq.

Shinseki’s major crime? He testified before Congress that it would take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to control Iraq after the war; a statement that came to pass in light of the highly praised surge that was used in 2007 to keep Iraq from spiraling into greater chaos and unchecked violence. Along the way, his tenure (1999-2003) as a Chief of Staff were marked with periodic sparring with then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, often times over the strategies being used to develops today’s Army.

As many other’s before him, Shinseki’s service to this country might have faded away into an obscure footnote in US history, if the current Obama Administration had not tapped him for the role of Veterans Affairs Secretary. The position puts Shinseki at the head of the organization that oversees the nation’s veteran’s hospitals, benefit programs and national cemeteries. With a budget in excess of $90 billion dollars, the VA is responsible for the health care, pensions, education, and rehabilitation programs.

Shinseki’s tenure will receive a boost from the Obama administration, whose first proposed budgets for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will expand health coverage to another 500,000 veterans. (http://ericshinseki.org) The increase budget will help Shinseki realize his vision of making the Department a dynamics and pro-active people centric organization.

Despite the increase budget, Shinseki remains aware that he is a “steward of the tax payers”, and as such, that his Department must have the proper metrics in place to safe guard the effectiveness of the programs that he his organization will be undertaking.

Among those happy to see the Shinseki at the head of the Department is the AFGE, the union of over 600,000 (150,000 in the VA) federal employees. J. David Cox, the union’s national-secretary treasurer, echoed the sentiment when he said "The federal employees of the VA have been waiting for someone with the type of courage and strength of character that General Shinseki has shown throughout his career; to say we are excited is an understatement."

Such lofty expectations though might be tempered with a dose of reality in the face of a sagging economy and a climbing unemployment rate. Still, Eric Shinseki at least is no longer relegated to the sidelines of service to his country. This patriotic war horse is back in the limelight he was forced to abandon 6 years ago, and it seems that it will be he, and not his former administration nemeses, who will ultimately have the last laugh.