Locals named to VA Medical Center study
The group will represent area veterans, as well as local health-care, education and economic industries.

In a major move since ordering a study of Walla Walla's veterans hospital, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has named a 10-member committee to assist in the work.

Five local people will represent Walla Walla's veterans and the community's health-care, education and economic industries in a study of the Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

The advisory committee will help gather data to assist the federal VA as it determines how to deliver service locally.

Congressional staff shared the membership list Friday with Walla Walla officials. They - along with local veterans and VA employees - had waited five months to find out who would be included on the committee.

Names were provided by Walla Walla City Manager Duane Cole, who will serve as a member.

``I think it's a good mixture of people from the local community,' Cole said Friday. ``It looks like a good regional mix, too.'

Study of the 1858 facility was ordered in May by VA Secretary Anthony Principi. The local medical center had been slated for a mission change as part of an overhaul of the VA's health-care system.

But Principi determined adequate information had not been gathered about the facility or services. He ordered a comprehensive study of the Walla Walla VA. That information will be used to develop a master plan for the medical center and its 84-acre campus.

The study was initially scheduled for completion by the end of this year. But with continued delays on the federal side, the deadline has been extended to the end of 2005.

Members of the advisory committee will work with an outside contractor on the plan. Cole said he has not yet heard who that contractor will be.

According to a September press release issued by the federal VA, the study contractor will ``identify and evaluate options for the delivery and location of services' for those treated at the Walla Walla hospital. The plan will identify options for divesting or leasing any underutilized property.

The mission of the campus and medical center will not be altered while the study proceeds, according to the press release.

An initial meeting of the newly appointed advisory committee is expected in December.

The group could get some aid from a separate community task force, which has been conducting its own study over the last three months.

Frustrated by the federal government's delays, local government, business, health care officials and veterans decided in July to do their own research.

They've been developing recommendations to pass on to the advisory committee and the VA. Cole, chairman of the community task force, said he plans to make that information available to the advisory committee as the group sees fit.

He said the task force determined that Walla Walla lacks adequate services to contract long-term care. It also has few psychiatric resources.

As the advisory committee embarks on its study, Cole said he believes those findings will be obvious.

``I'd be willing to bet that we all come to the same conclusion at the end,' he said.