Beds for vets

Veterans came out in force to support keeping inpatient services for the local VA hospital:

Britton's desire to see all veterans receive great health care and not have to drive miles to get it, is why he was among more than 300 who packed the Appleseed Room at Memorial Coliseum on Wednesday to ensure the local Department of Veterans Affairs hospital, VA Northern Indiana Health Care System, 2121 Lake Ave., doesn't lose its inpatient care services. It was the last scheduled public meeting on the issue.

“We're going to fight until the bitter end,” said Britton, a founding member of local activist group Veterans for Better Health Care.

But there are 132,000 veterans in northeast Indiana, and they are fighting to keep 22 medical-surgical beds and four intensive-care beds. You do the math. And what quality of support services can a 26-bed hospital justify? Would the care be better if more money were spent on outpatient services here and for medical specialties elsewehre (such as orthopedic care in Indianapolis)? I have this nagging feeling that these activist veterans are going for a moral victory that won't really add to the quality of care and might even hurt it. The VA system is thought by many to provide the highest quality medical care in the country, quite a turnaround from just a few years ago. How long can the system stay good if it tries to give every local region exactly what it wants?