Veterans say health services improving

HARLINGEN — Veterans who have been calling for a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in the Rio Grande Valley say they will never stop pushing toward their goal, but leaders of veterans groups say health care services are greatly improved.

Ray Molano, commander of Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 856, said his group and others in the Valley Veterans Alliance plan to keep pressure on federal officials to build a full veterans hospital.

"We’re still pushing to get a hospital," Molano said. "We have the Winter Texans coming down for five or six months a year or even becoming permanent residents."

A high number of Winter Texans served in World War II, Korea or Vietnam, he said.

"We’re also getting a lot of people back from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder and other illnesses and injuries," he said.

Omar Cortez, commander of American Legion Post 105 also insists there will be a need for a hospital because veterans health care needs in the Valley will grow.

"We still need the hospital, but anything we can get is better than nothing, you know," Cortez said. "They have better facilities now and we’re gradually getting there."

He sees a need to be both persistent and patient, he said.

"Some guys are happy and some guys are not happy, I guess," he said. "At least they’re doing something. It’s a step closer."

New contracts with civilian hospitals are helping fill the void in health care service for veterans, Cortez said.

"I, myself, went to Valley Baptist hospital for surgery," Cortez said. "They treated me real good. I’ve got no complaints."

John Grimes, post commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2410, of Harlingen and San Benito, served in the Marine Corps six years, part of that time in Vietnam.

Although the DVA has a limited budget, it is doing everything it can to provide full services to Valley veterans, he said.

Luis Perez, leader of United Veterans Organization of the Rio Grande Valley, also said DVA health care services for veterans have improved dramatically.

Perez, a Marine Corps Vietnam War combat veteran, said some of his DVA treatment in the past was sometimes frustrating and substandard, but recently his experience at the DVA clinic has been very positive.

"All the doctors, especially Dr. Gary Paradiso, are great," Perez said. "The voucher system where you get treatment at Valley Baptist worked absolutely great," he said.

"But I’m sure there are still going to be people that complain," he said of DVA care.

But care at DVA hospitals and clinics is getting better and better, Perez said.

"They’ve got their eye on the target," he said of the DVA.

But Perez doesn’t believe there will ever be a full DVA hospital in the Valley.

"That’s just not going to happen," he said. But the new clinic and the outpatient surgical center are huge improvements over the past when Valley veterans had to make long trips to Audie L. Murphy Memorial Hospital in San Antonio even for routine procedures, and then wait for long periods of time to get care, he said.

Arturo Treto Garza of Harlingen, a member of America’s Last Patrol Post 3, also said health care for Valley veterans is getting a lot better.

"What’s happening is that the VA finally recognized that there are a lot of veterans in South Texas and that San Antonio can’t handle all of us," he said.

"So they have gone ahead and recognized the Texas Valley and the Coastal Bend Health Service, which is going to be down here and have its own director, its own money and its own decision-making power," he said. "It will be easy to deal directly locally with the VA to get our own hospital."

By working hard for the past four or five years, groups like his who are part of the Valley Veterans Alliance have proved there are enough veterans in the area to support a hospital, Treto Garza said.

"Our enrollment fairs and our recruiting of new veterans to the local VA health services has increased and the VA is serving a lot of veterans under the hospital contracts," he said.

The projected number of new veteran enrollees from Cameron and Willacy counties is expected to reach 6,492 this year; 6,672 in 2011; 6,821 in 2012; 6,979 in 2013; 7,078 in 2014; and 7,161 in 2015, the DVA said.

Construction of the DVA Ambulatory Surgery & Specialty Outpatient Center in Harlingen will be completed by October, DVA spokesman Froy Garza said. It will open in January, he said.

The 120,000-square-foot building will be leased from Boyer Harlingen L.C. for $3,928,674 a year; the land is being leased from the University of Texas by the developer, Garza said.

The project includes a 768-car parking garage, he said.

The contractor is Harvey-Cleary Builders of Austin.

DVA officials project that the facility will serve veterans’ needs for the next 10 years in the new VA Texas Valley Coastal Bend Health Care System, which will separate in October from the area served by Audie L. Murphy Memorial DVA Hospital in San Antonio, Garza said.

The new service area extends from Laredo to the Harlingen-McAllen-Brownsville area and north to Corpus Christi, he said.

The DVA projects the area will have 38,776 veterans in the service area in 2011. That number will increase to 39,849 in 2012; 40,928 in 2013; 41,616 in 2014; and 42,184 in 2015.

There were 13,171 veterans served from the Valley-Coastal Bend service area in February 2010, the DVA said.

A total of 1,368 veterans from the Valley received care at Audie Murphy in February, the DVA said. A total of 14,538 veterans from Starr, Hidalgo, Cameron and Willacy counties sought VA care in February, according to DVA figures.

The new Ambulatory Surgery & Specialty Outpatient Center will serve patients referred from the South Texas VA Health Care Center at Harlingen, 2106 Treasure Hills Blvd., and outpatient clinics at McAllen, Corpus Christi and Laredo.

The new center will offer a full range of outpatient services including six surgical suites for colonoscopy, cystoscopy, medicine and surgery specialty outpatient clinics, prosthetics care, amputee clinic and a substance abuse treatment clinic, a DVA document states.

The center will not provide inpatient care, Garza said. Patients who need overnight care will be transferred to Valley Baptist Medical Center or another hospital that has a DVA contract, he said.

Garza said the DVA is still encouraging all veterans to sign up for DVA medical care, even if they think they may not be eligible. Requirements for eligibility have recently been revised, so all veterans should apply, he said.

"The more veterans we can identify down here, the more funding there will be for health care," he said.

To contact the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system in the Rio Grande Valley, call (956) 430-9304 or write to or visit the VA Texas Valley Coastal Bend Health Care System office at 2701 S. 77 Sunshine Strip, Harlingen, Texas 78550.