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MrRodgers -> RE: Why does the GOP oppose Veterans' health care? (2/15/2017 1:49:02 PM)
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It has been somewhat bipartisan neglect but also a victim of govt. incompetence and private greed. A VA center right down the road just recently completed is 1 million sq. ft. and ended up $1 billion+.
When the hospital - with 90 in-patient beds and the 120-bed community living center, or "skilled nursing home care facility" - is open, Bright anticipates his staff will serve about 60,000 veterans out of some 400,000 who live in Nevada.
The cost of building and staffing the medical center with 1,800 health-care professionals and support staff has escalated over the years as the recession hit and the cost of steel rose.
"Construction costs are in the neighborhood of $600 million. By the time you add the equipment and furniture and pay for the staff, we're going to be bumping up close to $1 billion," Bright said.
The figure includes four primary care clinics that have opened around the Las Vegas Valley and two that will be established in Laughlin and Pahrump.
HERE
(ok that does include other service centers as well but of that wasn't enough, then there is this in Colorado)
The 82-page report, by the internal watchdog at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, identifies several instances in which VA leaders turned a blind eye toward problems with the new facility, which won’t be finished before January 2018.
And even then it won’t be ready. The VA estimates the nearly $1.7 billion facility — once expected to cost $604 million — will need at least six more months and another $315 million before it will have the furniture and equipment it requires.
“This means veterans will not likely be served by a fully functioning facility before mid-to-late 2018 or almost 20 years after VA identified the need to replace and expand its aging facility in Denver,” noted investigators with the VA Office of Inspector General.
The design team explained the idea was “that no one has to spend an entire workday out of reasonable proximity to a window,” according to the report.
Not only did this feature see its own cost rise, from $81.4 million in 2011 to $120.7 million in 2015, but investigators said the VA was warned by one of its consultants, Jacobs Engineering Group, about the high cost of this approach.
In 2011, the firm suggested a simpler approach — one akin to a VA facility in North Las Vegas that cost about $620 million and used tall, attached buildings. That campus is about 1.3 million square feet; Aurora is about 1.2 million square feet.
“However, the Las Vegas facility cost significantly less than the Denver facility, in part, due to the simpler design,” wrote investigators.
The findings also flagged several other expensive flourishes. “The JVT’s design included unnecessarily expensive and complicated elements, including the use of underground parking to preserve mountain views, natural lighting and extensive landscaping of garden patios in between and around buildings,” noted investigators.
VA officials told the inspector general that members of the design team often were “both difficult to work with and not cooperative in making necessary design changes to meet the budget.” These same officials speculated the design team resisted changes because it would fund a redesign of the project, rather than the VA.
HERE
I think one begat the other. Does every new center have to be the Taj Mahal ?
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