When a patient requires a specialist such as a cardiologist, services are offered in Omaha, she said. The Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Grand Island has 280 full-time equivalency employees, she said. The nursing home portion has a part-time physician, one nurse practitioner and one physician assistant. The outpatient program currently has three physicians, one part-time physician, one nurse practitioner and one physician assistant, Velehradsky said. Three physicians will be added to the outpatient program in October.
Rural veterans are still wary about the VA's changes, which they view as an erosion of services.
Because of the makeup of Nebraska, we may be pushing that a little too far. Don Shuda, Hall County veterans service officer, was unavailable for comment Friday. U.S. Rep. Bill Barrett and other representatives sent a letter last week asking the General Accounting Office to investigate the Department of Veterans Affairs' funding formulas for health care. It appears the VA health care funding formula, which was recently updated to reflect changing medical practices and demographic trends, has cut too much from Nebraska veterans' programs. Obviously, this is unfair.