Omaha VA hospital's fate up in air

VA hospital's fate up in air
By Henry J. Cordes
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Will a plan to spend almost $600 million on a new hospital for veterans in Omaha survive the new era of austerity that seems to be taking hold in Washington?

It's too early to tell, Veterans Administration Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said Friday in Omaha.

But he also said support for the needs of veterans historically has been strong and bipartisan in the nation's capital.

"That won't change,'' he predicted. And that would seem to bode well for the facility the former Army general described as "much-needed.''

Omaha VA officials currently are in the midst of drawing up plans for a new $560 million hospital that would serve more than 167,000 veterans across Nebraska, western Iowa and parts of Kansas and Missouri. It would replace the aging 60-year-old facility near 42nd and Woolworth Streets, and is tentatively set for completion by 2018.

Shinseki, a twice-wounded Vietnam veteran appointed by President Barack Obama in late 2008, was in Omaha as part of a national tour of VA facilities. Before speaking with reporters, he held a round table with rural veterans to hear about their health care concerns and ideas.

One thing Shinseki learned in the discussion is that the department's push to increase use of "telemedicine'' faces a barrier in the lack of broadband service in many parts of the region.
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