Statement of
Jack G. Hetrick, FACHE
Director, Edward Hines, Jr. Hospital
Veterans Health Administration
Department of Veterans Affairs
before the
Committee on Veterans' Affairs
United States Senate
Chicago, Illinois Field Hearing
July 6, 2005
**
Mr.Chairman and Members of the Committee, I appreciate the
opportunity to appear before you today regarding your question, "Isthe VA
Prepared to meet the Needs of Our Returning Vets." Ican address this question
as relates to the Edward Hines Jr. VAHospital.
The Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital is located 12 miles west of downtown
Chicago and offers primary, extended and specialty care and serves as a tertiary
care referral center for a network of VA hospitals in the area. Hines represents
virtually the entire spectrum of VA healthcare and clinical programs. Specialized
clinical programs include Blind Rehabilitation, Spinal Cord Injury, Neurosurgery,
Radiation Therapy and Cardiovascular Surgery. The hospital also serves as the
area's.hub for pathology, radiology, radiation therapy, human resource
management and fiscal services. Hines currently operates 472 beds and seven
community based outpatient clinics (CBOC) ih Oak Park, Manteno, Elgin, Oak
Lawn, Aurora, LaSalle, and Joliet. Nearly 512,000 patient visits occurred in fiscal
year 2004, providing care to 52,647 veterans, primarily from Cook, DuPage and
Will counties. So far this year, we have provided care to 6 percent more veterans
than we did last year at this time.
Hines offers the full spectrum of mental health services, including inpatient
"andoutpatient psychiatric care, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Program, and a
Homeless Chronically Mentally IIIProgram, which outreaches to homeless
veterans in the Chicago area. Hines provides mental health services at all of its
seven CBOCs.
Through initiatives such as Advanced Clinical Access (ACA), Hines is
committed to providingtimely and accessible care to our veterans. All priority
veterans who request a primary care visit and are new enrollees are being
scheduled for an evaluation by a primary care provider within 30 days of the
veteran's requested date. Hines providers support the VBA process by providing
timely compensation and pension (C&P) examinations by consistently staying
within the VHA time standard of 35 days. To make certain we never take for
granted our current veterans and returning veterans, I recently established an
awareness program entitled "It's All About the Vet at the Hines VA" that was
designed to reconnect each employee at Hines with our mission to care for
veterans. Hospital staff and veteran volunteers served as instructors for the
class. At the end of the program each employeewas challenged to write down
how they individually contribute to our mission.
Hines is committed to ensuring a smooth transition from 000 healthcare
to VA healthcare for Chicago-area soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
As part of VA's seamless transition process, Hines has increased the number of
outreach activities to returning service members and new veterans, including
Reserve and National Guard units. In Fiscal Year 2004, Hines saw 308
OIF/OEF patients and we expect to exceed this number this year as we have
already treated 290 of these patients through the first 9 months of this fiscal year.
Hines has a special office set up to coordinate activities locally and to assure that
the health care needs of the newest veterans are fully met. Hines has made a
commitment to assure that returning OIF/OEF veterans have full and timely
access to mental health care. We are able to schedule returning Iraqi veterans
for a mental health evaluation immediately upon request and have established a
special support group specifically for veterans returning from Iraq with post
traumgtic stress disorder issues.
Many service members are returning from combat with severe injuries,
requiring extensive hospitalization and rehabilitation. Since Hines offers
specialized services not provided by 000 in this region of tt;lecountry, we have
received a number of active duty soldiers for spinal cord rehabilitation and blind
orientation and mobility. Presently in the Hines Blind Rehabilitation program, a
young OEF/OIF active duty solider that was blinded in combat is undergoing
intense rehabilitation. When I met this soldier he told me how committed he was
to learn how to deal with his condition. He went on to say that he researched
Blind Rehab programs available around the country and determined that Hines
was the best and that is where he wanted to go. In our Spinal Cord Injury
program we recently received another active duty service member injured
stateside. His home is outside the Chicago area and his wife accompanied him
to be with him during this critical period. Knowingtheir home was outside the
Chicago area; our Social Work staff offered assistance in finding a place for her
to stay and continues to follow-up to.assure herwe will help in anyway possible.
The importance of these two programs was spotlighted this past May20th
when Secretary Nicholson was on hand to dedicate two new state of the art
buildings that serve our Blind Rehabilitation and Spinal Cord Injury programs.C},
These two new facilities will allow us to continue the fine tradition of high quality
care for these two special needs programs.
Hines is fully accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of
Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), as well as National Committee for Quality

Assurance (NCQA), and the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation
Facilities (CARF).
VHA's performance measurement system enables us to hold ourselves
accountable for providing high quality of care for veterans. Hines meets or
exceeds the private sector benchmarks in industry recognized performance
measures in the care of heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia. Hines has
been recognized as a leader in patient safety and has been identified for best
practices in JCAHO publications and the Annual Patient Safety Forum. For
example, the Hines patient safety program was recognized in the May 2004
JCAHO publication "Patient Safety" and in the November 2004 JCAHO
publication "Source".
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs has approved and signed an enhanced
use agreement allowing Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago to
renovate and establish a transitional living center and a low-income senior living
center that will occupy two previously unused buildings on the Hines campus.
These two "Faith Based" initiatives will serve veterans without added cost to the
hospital and will renovate unused buildings without utilizing limited capital
resources.
In summary, the staff at the Hines VA Hospital works extremely hard to
provide top quality health care to all our veterans. Our patient satisfaction scores
are a direct reflection of this commitment and hard work. Over the past three
years our inpatient satisfaction scores have consistently been on the rise, with
the majority of our patients rating their overall care as "Excellent" or "Very
Good." In the first half of this year, we have served over 47,000 veterans as
outpatients and during the first quarter of Fiscal Year 05 our overall outpatient
satisfaction score was in the top ten scores nationwide.We are proud of the firstrate
healthcare we provide to America's veterans, and are fully committed to
meeting this challenge in the future. I believe the HinesVA Hospital has
demonstrated and can promise that we are prepared to meet the needs of
returning vets.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This concludes my formal remarks. I welcome
-any questions the Committee Members may have.