VA Secretary joins senators in Chillicothe medical center visit

CHILLICOTHE— U.S. senators Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown visited the Chillicothe Veterans' Affairs Medical Center Friday morning alongside the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs, Denis McDonough.

The trio visited the medical center to meet with facility leadership, frontline staff, union representative and veteran representatives from the local community and learn about the impact of national-level decisions on local VA operations and services.

More: Wife fears her husband will lose healthcare if VA closes

This was Portman's first visit to Chillicothe to visit the medical center. He said he doesn't support the recommendations to the CVAMC and said setting up a new facility "makes no sense to me," because of the potential for lost jobs. He said some people already drive an hour to get to the Chillicothe facility, so closing it could make veterans have to drive twice as far.

"It's just the wrong thing to do for our veterans who do live in this part of the state that has provided so many men and women who have been willing to put their lives on the line for all of us, and this is a heavy rural area," Portman (R-Ohio) said. "Our hope is that this visit today will just reinforce the feeling that I hope all of us have, which is that people here are doing a great job, and that the veterans deserve the incredible care that they get here."

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He said he saw a man holding a sign near the VA this morning that read, "I'm clean and sober thanks to this VA." Portman said the medical center is essential to dealing with substance abuse and mental health issues in Ross County.

McDonough said the goal of the recommendations are to keep healthcare accessible across the United States. He said the recommendations include establishing a multi-specialty community-based outpatient clinic (MS CBOC) in the vicinity of Chillicothe, which would retain many services since many procedures that previously required inpatient care can now be performed as outpatient procedures because of advancing technology.

“[The recommendations] envisions a new facility that has a range of services that is a reflection of where healthcare is in the country today," McDonough said. "In all cases, we will stay here and maintain the fundamental integrated healthcare that the VA provides, drawing on a network of capabilities that includes private network providers, CBOC clinics and other Ohio providers.”

Brown (D-Ohio) said the data from the VA's report to the AIR commission is outdated because the information was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

McDonough also said "the whole process" of the VA recommendations have stopped because the Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission has not been appointed yet.

"This is a process focused on the physical infrastructure of VA," McDonough said. "At the same time, we are aggressively implementing a human infrastructure project at VA because at the end of the day, the most important thing about VA care are the professionals."

Friday morning at the yearly Chillicothe State of the Community address, Mayor Luke Feeney said the possible closure of the Chillicothe VA is a threat to the community. He said he will do anything in his power to ensure the medical center remains open in Chillicothe.

"Our veterans deserve the high quality of care that they receive at our Chillicothe VA and they deserve it close to home," Feeney said. "It would be a true tragedy if that facility closed."

Megan Becker is a reporter for the Chillicothe Gazette. Call her at 740-349-1106, email her at mbecker@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter @BeckerReporting

This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: VA Secretary joins senators in Chillicothe medical center visit