Long-delayed, budget-busting VA hospital to open in Colorado
It’s more than $1 billion over budget and five years behind schedule, but an elaborate new veterans hospital is finally opening in suburban Denver with the promise of state-of-the-art medical care.
The Veterans Affairs Department plans a ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday for the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center in Aurora.
The new hospital offers more services, including clinics focusing on mammography, spinal cord injury, prosthetics and aquatic therapy as well as additional space for patients’ families to stay overnight after a surgery.
But it’s hard for Colorado Springs-area veterans to get excited about the new facility, requiring a round-trip of about 150 miles to visit.
“We have 100,000 veterans in our area,” said Mark Randash, a Navy veteran. “We have more military installations than the Denver area. Yet we still don’t have our own VA hospital. We have to get civilian medical care or use the VA clinic in Colorado Springs, but the clinic doesn’t have an emergency room and it doesn’t handle the more serious conditions.”
And Randash shockingly learned that he has one of those conditions.
“I have cancer in both lungs and in my hips,” he said. “They won’t tell me what kind of cancer it is. I’m here at the clinic taking a number to get an appointment, but I’m told one isn’t available until the end of the month.”
Long waits are among the frustrations veterans have endured since the clinic opened in 2014. Investigations between 2014 and 2016 found that the VA was inaccurate in recording wait times for 90 percent of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder; didn’t give timely or any referrals to civilian doctors 60 percent of the time; and was extremely slow in reimbursing those doctors.
According to Frederick Sales, a Navy veteran, the situation at the clinic hasn’t improved much.
“I know they’re trying,” he said. “But today, I finally got an appointment that I waited eight months for. The doctor didn’t explain why it took so long.”
However, Larry Johnson, an Army veteran, said he’s never had a problem with the clinic.
“But I realize that other patients aren’t as healthy as I am,” he said. “As for the new hospital in Aurora, I’m glad to see it. I’ll be going there once a year. I do wish that we had our own VA hospital here in the Springs.”
The $1.7 billion hospital made it through nearly a decade of management blunders, legal battles, federal investigations and angry congressional hearings.
Veterans said they’re frustrated by the slow and tortuous path the VA followed but relieved the hospital is finally done.
It replaces an aging and crowded hospital in Denver that dates from before World War II. But some services will still be offered there after they were left out of the new facility when spending soared out of control.
Despite inconveniences and lack of options, Randash may have no choice but to rely on the new hospital to help him battle his cancer.
“I’ve got a wife and I’ve got grandkids,” he said. “I want to see them grow up. If I don’t get in soon and get something done, it probably isn’t going to make any difference. But maybe I can get a few extra months out of (my life).”
