Originally Published by: The Daily Local News

Editor’s Note: The following is an open letter to Veterans Administration Secretary Denis McDonough upon release of the VA Recommendations to the Asset and Infrastructure Review Commission.

Dear Secretary McDonough,

My community was rocked this week to learn that the Coatesville VA Medical Center (CVAMC) is on a list of facilities slated for possible closure. For nearly a century, the CVAMC has delivered health care to the 73,000 veterans in our region. The facility employs over 1,300 community members – a quarter of whom are veterans – and trains our nation’s next generation of health care providers. The Coatesville VA is proudly ranked among the top medical facilities in the SEPA VA network.

Given the high-quality care the CVAMC provides, the many veterans it serves, and its easy-to-access location in southern Chester County, I’m sure you can understand why so many are still in shock at this news. Potentially eliminating inpatient mental health care and rehabilitation services and closing the community living center will significantly reduce the care available to veterans in my district and in the surrounding area. As I’ve read through the report, I’m skeptical of some of the claims made in it and I am concerned that the report itself contradicts assertions you’ve made about the intended outcome of this work. I insist that you come to my community to see this valued resource for yourself, listen to local veterans receiving care, and meet the dedicated medical professionals working here.

In the meantime, I have several concerns which I ask you to consider and address.

First, you recently said the recommendations in the report were not designed to “reduce the DOD footprint…but to maintain VA as the premier health care provider in every market in the country. This is a modernization effort to upgrade the effectiveness of our facilities by moving from aged, dated facilities into facilities that reflect the needs of our 21st-century vets.” To the contrary, closing the Coatesville Medical Center would in fact reduce the DOD footprint quite drastically for veterans in my district. I would instead encourage you to consider making upgrades to modernize the facility. For the sake of veterans in my community, I urge you to reconsider.

Second, you also recently said that the VA wouldn’t close some facilities because they serve historically underserved minority populations and rural veterans. Adding, “if we reduce our presence in those markets, there wouldn’t be enough good options in the community. Instead of downsizing those markets, we’re doubling down on it, because that’s the only way to guarantee that vets who live there get the care they need.” In direct contradiction to your stated intent, closing the medical center in Coatesville, an historically underserved majority Black city surrounded by exurban and rural communities, is a significant and dramatic downsizing of access for these communities, not a “doubling down” on services. For the sake of veterans in my community, I urge you to reconsider.

Third, the CVAMC residential rehabilitation treatment program (RRTP) has the highest utilization of any program in the region, serving 108 veterans, on average, each day. We should invest in modernizing this highly used facility rather than closing it. The report recommends building a new RRTP facility in Wilmington, DE with the rationale that “there is no RRTP in the Wilmington, Delaware, area and local Veterans are traveling more than an hour away to the Coatesville VAMC for RRTP care.” I am alarmed by the presumption that it’s not a hardship for veterans in my district to travel to Wilmington, but it is a hardship for veterans in and around Wilmington to travel to Coatesville. This statement also ignores the fact that veterans accessing the Coatesville VA come from many surrounding areas in SE PA, and not just from Delaware. This presumption is repeated throughout the report. For the sake of veterans in my community, I urge you to reconsider.

Fourth, the report consistently refers to non-VA community providers as having sufficient resources – staff and beds – to accommodate the increase in demand from veterans who previously sought care at the CVAMC. This data was compiled before the COVID pandemic and before multiple medical facilities in Southern Chester County announced their closure. If this research were done today, I’m confident it would show less capacity from community providers. For the sake of veterans in my community, I urge you to reconsider.

Lastly, while we are proud to partner with our community providers, they cannot be responsible for the promises that we’ve made to our veterans. It is our nation’s responsibility to make sure that our veterans receive the care they have earned. For the sake of veterans in my community, I urge you to reconsider.

Thank you for your attention to this matter of critical importance to me, to our community, and to the veterans who live here. I urge you to reconsider the recommendation to close the Coatesville VA Medical Center. I look forward to welcoming you to my district and to showing you this valued community resource that so many veterans in Southeast Pennsylvania depend on.

Chrissy Houlahan

Congresswoman, PA06