The director of the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center on Monday discussed what it means to be a rural hospital, serving a population across Southeast Missouri and Northeast Arkansas.
Director Drew DeWitt was the guest speaker at the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon, held at the Holiday Inn ballroom.
DeWitt told those in attendance he arrived in Poplar Bluff six months ago, coming from a position as deputy director at the VA facility in Portland, Oregon.
DeWitt has been with the Veterans Administration for 17 years. He is a native of Long Island, New York, and began his federal career as a nighttime housekeeper at the Gainesville, Florida hospital.
Since that time, DeWitt said, he’s held several jobs within the VA in seven different states.
However, “This is the first place I’ve ever bought a house, so I’m intending to stay,” he said.
The local VA hospital serves around 22,000 veterans in 28 counties across Southeast Missouri and Northeast Arkansas, DeWitt said.
It also is one of the largest employers in the region.
“We’re are authorized for 900, and as of last Friday, we have a staff of about 754 on board, so we have a fairly large staff,” he reported.
The hospital operates outpatient clinics in Paragould and Pocahontas, Arkansas, as well as in Farmington, Sikeston, West Plains and Cape Girardeau.
“In Cape Girardeau, we’re actually building a large health care center. We’ll have about 150 staff,” DeWitt said.
In a question and answer format, DeWitt was asked about the ongoing renovations at the local hospital and when they would be complete.
“Never,” he joked, citing budgetary issues.
“To put it in perspective, we have a lot of construction going on. We’re doing a lot of infrastructure. We’re currently replacing our boiler plant and our underground storage tank. We did open a new urgent care in November, plus the new main lobby and new education building,” he said. “In reality, we’ll never get done.”
Under a recent facility mission assessment, DeWitt said, the local hospital was graded based on its construction and repair needs.
“Just to repair our building would be over $50 million in costs. That’s why I laugh and say never because I’ve got a little over $3 million for my construction budget this year,” he continued.
Still, DeWitt said, work is slowly being done.
“There are a lot of infrastructure needs like replacing windows, replacing all the piping, working on replacing the air conditioning,” DeWitt said.
The reason the repairs have come slowly, he said, is because the VA operates more than 170 medical centers across the country, some dating back to 1867, plus 1,200 outpatient clinics, 57 regional offices and 100-plus cemeteries.
“All that comes out of the same pot of funding,” he said.
With talk of a new federal infrastructure bill, DeWitt was asked about any possible changes at the local hospital should it pass.
“It quite honestly has to do with what congress appropriates,” DeWitt explained. “There’s been a lot of talk about the infrastructure bill, and if that happens, at the VA, as a whole nationwide, we’re looking at about $18 billion. There’s no telling how that gets appropriated.”
DeWitt also was asked about his vision for the future of the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center.
“Realistically, we’re a rural hospital, so we can’t be everything to everyone. We need to determine what we’re going to do,” he replied. “I think we need to determine who we are and do it well.”
A strategic planning meeting was held in March, he reported, to begin working on a long-term plan.
“There’s a lot we do well, like primary care and behavioral health,” DeWitt said, while also declaring “there’s going to be changes coming.”
The VA as a whole, he said, is determining how it should look going forward, such as “where it should be, what should get expanded, what should be smaller,” DeWitt said. “That report is due to Congress in May of 2023, and that’s going to have a lot of input on what happens to us.”