Shore Memorial Hospital hopes to provide Veterans Administration services to vets who now travel to Delaware

Shore Memorial Hospital is proposing to offer radiation and dialysis treatments to veterans at Medicare rates, all under the authority of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs - a program that Atlantic County Veterans Services Officer Bob Frolow believes would be the first in the country to be run outside of Veterans Administration hospitals.

But the proposal needs federal authorization from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The Atlantic County Board of Chosen Freeholders this week became the latest government officials to urge its approval, joining Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd, and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

"We're trying to use this, obviously, to help local veterans and also as a pilot program for the nation," said Frolow, who first conceived the idea along with former Shore Memorial CEO Rick Pitman.

The plan would work on what the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs calls a "fee basis," in which veterans would be treated at health care centers other than VA facilities, but their treatment would be authorized by the VA, Frolow said.

"They don't like to do that," he said, "but in this situation, with cancer treatments, it's a little hectic. They're sick anyway, and to drive 90 minutes each way, it doesn't make sense."

Frolow was referring to the VA hospital closest to southern New Jersey, located in Wilmington, Del. - 65 miles from the VA Health Clinic in Ventnor.

Atlantic County Freeholder Chairman Frank Formica, who co-sponsored the county resolution with Freeholder Charles Garrett, said that the radiation and dialysis treatments "would be excellent services to provide. Veterans have to suffer going all the way to the VA Hospital in Delaware, and it's a very difficult trip. This would be such a relief for them, and a comfort."

Shore Memorial recently opened its new Outpatient Dialysis Center in Northfield, with 21 dialysis stations. Its cancer center opened in 2004.

"From Shore Memorial's perspective, it could be done very quickly," said Fran Morrison, Shore Memorial's administrative director of ambulatory care. "We're just waiting for the OK from the VA to allow us to be able to provide these services and allow them to be done at Medicare rates. ... If we do hear that, we're ready to get the ball rolling.

The hospital sent a formal request to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki late last month and is awaiting an answer.

"We'd want to do a walk-through at Shore Memorial and set up a formal program before bringing veterans in for treatments," Frolow said. "I expect we'd have an answer in the next 30 days. As for the program formally going into effect, realistically I'd say six months."

The proposal is the second program based out of Somers Point that could serve as a nationwide pilot program for veterans services. The Gates, just up Shore Road from the hospital, is the site of one of the first permanent housing complexes for veterans in the nation.

Shore Memorial Hospital, meanwhile, is already an approved site for VA physical therapy, Morrison said - and Frolow believes that more programs could be possible in the future.

"If we get this approved, the door is wide open for other treatments down the road, like emergency room services," Frolow said. "The VA (clinic) is not open during nights and weekend, and people tend to get sick at nights and weekends. If we can make that kind of arrangement, one, it would be a money maker for Shore Memorial, and two, it would also create better care for veterans."

Right now, however, the hospital is focused on the radiation/dialysis plan.

"We'd love to see this get off the ground," Morrison said. "We'd love nothing more than to be able to save veterans."

Contact Steven Lemongello:

609-272-7275

SLemongello@pressofac.com