Forum: Air Force Life

From the San Antonio Express-News on mysa.com

http://www.mysanantonio.com/military/Wi ... go_up.html

Web Posted: 02/17/2009 12:00 CST Wilford Hall to be razed; new clinic will go up

Wilford Hall Medical Center will merge its inpatient services with Brooke Army Medical Center. A new outpatient clinic will replace it.

By Sig Christenson - Express-News A symbol of Lackland AFB's rise to prominence in the modern Air Force for more than 50 years, Wilford Hall Medical Center will be demolished and replaced by a new facility — as early as next year.

The Pentagon has hired an architect and construction company to design the project, listed as a top priority by Defense Department officials. Tearing down Wilford Hall and building a new outpatient clinic are expected to cost at least $440 million. But for now, one thing is missing: money from Congress.

“The Air Force and the Department of Defense have clearly chosen that direction to go, and we have some indication that the Congress is supportive,” said Cem Maxwell, deputy director of the San Antonio Joint Program Office, which oversees 78 base closure construction projects. “But we don't have the check in hand yet, at least for the construction.”

Congressional funding is expected for the project, part of a set of sweeping changes in how the military provides health care and training. Maxwell said $3.75 billion had been included for health facilities construction in one version of the economic stimulus bill, but the amount was cut by a House-Senate conference committee.

Still, “I'm confident we're going in the right direction because we have the funding and the authority to proceed with design,” he said.

One of three Level 1 trauma centers in town, Wilford Hall will merge its inpatient services with Brooke Army Medical Center. The 2005 Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, commonly known as BRAC, ordered Wilford Hall to become an outpatient clinic, and it set aside funds for a partial renovation of the hospital.

That plan called for upgrading the basement and four floors of the hospital, which opened nearly 52 years ago. Maxwell said a tri-service panel studying the issue opted instead to build an entirely new facility, in part because of Wilford Hall's age, the cost of revamping the entire facility and the fact that some part of the hospital would not be used as a clinic.

Wilford Hall took form after Lackland suddenly became a huge Air Force training base at the start of the Korean War. More than 70,000 recruits trained in a tent city there 58 years ago. A small hospital when established in 1942, it was reduced to an infirmary by June 1950, the Air Force said, with the nine-story Wilford Hall opening in 1957.

Decades of wear and tear on the 1.4 million-square-foot hospital, the war in Iraq and BRAC sealed its fate. Revolving-door deployments siphoned staff to an Air Force medical complex in Balad, Iraq, and an emphasis on joint operations for both medical care and training in the 2005 BRAC forced a shift of its inpatient services to BAMC.

The hospitals offer many of the same services. Wilford Hall recorded 140 emergency room visits, six births, 35 surgeries and 9,285 lab procedures every day in the past year. BAMC logged 123 daily ER visits, 58 surgeries and 3,039 lab procedures.

BAMC is undergoing a massive expansion and will absorb Wilford Hall's emergency room and inpatient operations. The government is pumping $724 million into BAMC, which is to be called San Antonio Military Medical Center North. Wilford Hall will be SAMMC South. SAMMC North will handle all ER visits, births, surgeries and lab procedures, while SAMMC South will specialize in clinics and urgent care for Lackland recruits.

“This is definitely a better plan because what would have happened is we would have renovated the existing floors and we would have been back five or six years from now with a request to build a new center,” said U.S. Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-San Antonio.

Many observers have thought Fort Sam Houston was the big winner in the past closure round because it will see $1.27 billion in BRAC-related construction over five years.

But large sums of BRAC and military construction money are flowing into Lackland as well. In all, $540.3 million is to be spent in the closure round on 17 facilities at Lackland, as well as $900 million in military construction funds for a sprawling dormitory complex. The $440 million for the health facility would bring the total amount of construction work at Lackland to $1.9 billion.

“Wilford Hall will play a large role in the military medical consolidation plan that will bring thousands of jobs to San Antonio while improving the quality of health care for not only the military, but also Texans in the San Antonio area,” said U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

Mayor Phil Hardberger said Monday that construction at Lackland likely would help create 2,000 jobs, nearly a doubling of the number of hard hats on Fort Sam this summer — and not a moment too soon amid an ailing economy.

“The military is one of the reasons we will not be as hard hit by the recession as other cities,” he said. “They are spending money here at a time that we need it most, and that gives us a real shot in the arm economically.”

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My oldest daughter was born there, and my wife did her clinical training there. Great hospital and a great bunch of people. If it were not for the fact that my wife was working there the day she went into labor 13 weeks early my oldest daughter probably would not be with us today. We may have to take a family vacation down South this year and visit the place that holds such a special place in our family once more before it's gone.

Forum: Air Force Life

Wilford Hall to be Razed