2015-may-june

dialogue

MAY / JUN 2015

Healthcare Journal of new orleans

in, to start to test our procedures, and we

still have a lot of folks that we have to hire.

It’s the kind of project that if you look at the

whole thing it can be overwhelming, but if

you start to organize it and put it in framed

areas of accomplishment then it’s veryman-

ageable. We are lucky that we’ve got good

people. One of the things that I think some-

times gets overlooked about the VA is that

it is an extremely honorable mission that

we serve. Because it’s an honorable mis-

sion good people come to serve it. That’s

what we have here. We have good people

who understandwhat we’re about andwhat

we are here to do. And they are committed

to see it through. I’ve been back now about

sevenweeks and I have had a chance to talk

to some of my former coworkers that are

still here. The word is, “We’re going to see it

through.” I am not so sure that you see that

kind of loyalty, that kind of commitment in

other healthcare systems or in other indus-

tries. A lot of our workforce is made up of

veterans and that connection is important.

We’re going to continue to hire more veter-

ans. We already met with Mayor Landrieu

and his employment initiative for the city

and we want tomake sure we align any vet-

eran that presents through that initiative the

opportunity for employment here.

Why is it important that there is a hospital

specifically for veterans?

The best way I can answer that is why is

it important to be an American? In Amer-

ica, if you put your life on the line to defend

otherAmericans’freedoms you get your own

healthcare system, you get your own bene-

fits. That’s what we’re about. That’s the kind

of country we are. It’s not about the health-

care—it’s about the young man or young

woman that was willing to put their lives on

the line. I have kids, my oldest is 16, and I

was thinking how proud I would be to see

him in a uniform and serving his country

and how devastated I would be if he came

back traumatized, unable to live a life like

I’ve lived. Do they deserve their own hos-

pital? Absolutely. They deserve a lot more

than that. We can’t do enough and we can’t

do it soon enough. That’s the real answer to

your question.

Nowbusinesswise, VAcare is a lot cheaper.

The care that we deliver in the VAis themost

comprehensive healthcare delivery model

there is.We provide themost preventive pri-

mary care all the way to palliative care and

everything in between. We have the most

comprehensivemental health programany-

where in healthcare.Themost acutemedical

and surgical program anywhere in health-

care. So if you are a veteran and you are eli-

gible for VA care, just about everything that

you would need you could get in the VA.

We have evolving medical services—the

VA tends to generally be on the front end of

that—but we provide comprehensive care

and we typically take care of the patient for

the life of the patient, the life of the veteran.

Most healthcare systems don’t do that…it’s

episodic care, not comprehensive care. You

go here for this and you go there for that. So

it’s fragmented in that sense.When you look

at our cost per patient, the latest study that I

recall is the Rand study in 2007, andwe were

a lot less than the average Medicare cost. It

ismy understanding that it ismuch cheaper

to have an integrated system.

And then there’s a business case for our

education role and our research role. Two

of every three physicians that graduate from

a United States medical school get part of

their training in the VA. So we are training

everybody’s doctors…or at least two-thirds

of them. The research that we do at the VA

is huge. Here we had one of the Nobel Prize

winners, Dr. Andrew Schally, who post-

Katrina has been relocated to Miami, but if

I have anything to dowith it I amgoing to get

himback here. So a lot of workwith research

and then of course, inway of amission, if we

are at war and the Department of Defense

does not have enoughmilitary beds we back

them up. So there’s a tremendous business

model, but the real story is that first one. It’s

who we are and it’s what distinguishes us

from other countries in the world.

“The idea is to partner with the

educational institutions to be able to

sustain a labor force that will allow

us to manage this large referral

destination hospital for the region.”