Back-channel attempts to change the hospital location persist.
It has been six months since I’ve written anything about the Robley Rex Veterans Hospital being built on Old Brownsboro Road at the Watterson Expressway. Neither have I seen anything in our local media about the matter. When I called the local VA office last winter I was told that plans were going ahead on schedule. The VA was in working regularly with the leadership of the University of Louisville and it was felt that planning with UofL was going forward in good faith. It appears however that opposition to construction at the new site has not faded into the woodwork altogether.
A few weeks ago, I received an invitation to attend a cocktail reception at Big Spring Country Club sponsored by Grow Smart Louisville, an advocacy group formed as much to generate pressure to get the VA to change its mind and build the replacement hospital downtown as to oppose construction at the Brownsboro site. I had to assume I was invited because I am a physician and not because I have been following the issue as a journalist. Only a tiny handful of physicians showed up– fewer than a dozen. An effort was made to stimulate discussion about how wrong the decision not to build downtown has been, but the ball never got rolling. I must say, that we physicians present had pleasant discussions about a variety of things over wine and hors d’oeuvres, however, I heard no substantial opposition from anyone other than the organizers of the session.
The principle argument that the new VA should be built downtown presented to this audience by the organizers revolved around the argument that the best doctors and the best care would only be available to the veterans if the hospital were downtown. It seems to me this argument will never fly with any physician except those who work only downtown. What physician working at Baptist, St. Mary’s, or the suburban Norton hospitals is going to admit that the care they deliver is inferior to that at the downtown medical center? Even the UofL faculty would not stick their necks out that far because in fact UofL has long wanted to expand its clinical practices beyond downtown. In truth, outside reviews of the safety and quality of hospitals in Louisville are not flattering to the downtown institutions. “Better quality of care downtown” is not the argument I would make.
This has always been about convenience for the UofL faculty and to the economic development potential pushed by downtown Louisville boosters. Indeed, another of the main arguments floated at the reception was that tax revenues for the city would only be enhanced if the hospital was located downtown. (At this I could only think of the financing disaster surrounding the Yum Arena. It would bother me to see our Veterans being used to save a basketball arena!) Maps were shown of potential downtown locations including a large complex imagined across Muhammad Ali from the Jewish Hospital complex. (I forget what is there now.) It was suggested that putting a National Cemetery on the Brownsboro site made more sense than a hospital.
We were encouraged to speak out about the matter to our colleagues and the public in whatever venues we could. I was told personally that President Ramsey and the University were looking for an opening so that they could take the position of responding to physician opposition to building in the suburbs and to build downtown after all. This may be an independent strategy or a wishful attribution on the part of Grow Smart. I have no knowledge that this is an active strategy of the University, but I know too much about UofL to believe personally that it has given up entirely on the matter. (Recall that I was their lobbyist for a while.) It would be easy for the University to lay the matter to rest. The VA assumes UofL is on board and it deserves to have a good-faith partner.
Project still on track.
After the reception, I checked back in with a spokesperson for the VA’s project planning to see if there has been meaningful continuing resistance to their plans, or if legislative support from our senators and congressman had softened. I was told no, that the major players were on board, and that the project was on track at full speed ahead.
About Traffic.
I made additional field trips this spring during the afternoon rush hour when school was still in session and almost all of the construction completed. Frankly, given the outcry, I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly the traffic flowed. The new slip ramp was diverting traffic as planned. Up to one-third of the exiting traffic was now exiting directly onto eastbound Old Brownsboro Road. Virtually all cars were clearing the intersections with the Interstate and Route 42 with each traffic light cycle. It cannot be said that traffic was backing up in any intolerable way. Admittedly, this was not a formal traffic study conducted over several days, but if anyone requests it, I will post the videos on YouTube. Earlier videos posted by opponents of the project appear to have been taken during periods of highway construction which would not be representative. I am sure that from time to time traffic may be heavier, as happens everywhere else in Louisville. In my opinion, those who want to rely on traffic as the principal reason for objecting to the Brownsboro Road site need to present a stronger case with documentation. If a new formal traffic study has been done now that this current phase of the road construction has been completed, we all need to see it.
There is a part of me that admires the persistence of Grow Smart Kentucky. I know something about fighting for and even losing inconvenient or controversial causes. In the matter of the new VA hospital, the veterans themselves have had substantial, and probably determinative input. Seems to me they are getting what they wanted. Sooner is better than later– or never. No solution is ever going to make everybody happy. This one seems reasonable.
Peter Hasselbacher, MD
President,KHPI
Emeritus Professor of Medicine, UofL
June 10, 2013