VA Previews Texas Site for “Polytrauma” Health Care
WASHINGTON – The Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital will house the nation’s newest Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center, where seriously injured and wounded veterans can go to receive intensive medical rehabilitation for treatment of disabilities due to trauma, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) said today.
VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. Michael J. Kussman on Friday visited the site, which will eventually house one floor of polytrauma ward space (12 beds) and transitional housing (12 apartments); one floor of polytrauma rehabilitation and multi-purpose space; and one floor for physical medicine and prosthetics service.
“VA manages the only nationwide network to care for polytrauma patients, and we are aggressively researching new methods of identifying and treating traumatic brain injury. San Antonio will play a critical role in our ability to properly care for these badly injured veterans,” Kussman said. “We are the world’s leader in traumatic brain injury, rehabilitation and research.”
“Polytrauma” refers to multiple injuries such as loss of vision or limbs and brain injuries, frequently caused by improvised explosive devices used by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Service members who are close to those blasts can suffer a range of brain injuries, even if they don’t suffer from a visible wound. Those injuries are called “traumatic brain injuries” (TBI).
VA created four special TBI centers in 1992 in Minneapolis, Minn.; Richmond, Va.; Tampa, Fla.; and Palo Alto, Calif. The centers expanded their mission in recent years to assist TBI patients and service members suffering from other serious problems, including amputations, burns, blindness and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD). Their new designation as polytrauma centers reflects their expanded mission. The facilities have structured their services around teams of specialists.
Last year, the four polytrauma centers were joined by 17 other regionally-based facilities to meet the needs of less severely injured veterans or those whose conditions had stabilized at one of the four primary polytrauma centers.
“The polytrauma system of care has been designed to balance the needs of our combat injured for highly specialized care with their needs for more local access to life-long rehabilitative care,” Kussman said.
The San Antonio project will consist of two stages. In the first, VA will construct an 84,000 square-foot, three-level building for rehabilitation, transitional living and prosthetics. This will be followed by renovation of 32,500 square feet of office and exam room spaces in the main medical center building at the veterans medical center.
The cost of the entire project is estimated at $66 million. Construction is expected to begin next year.
