WASHINGTON – Veterans in the Livermore area will receive either major renovations to a current veterans nursing home or a new state-of-the-art facility from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Honorable R. James Nicholson, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, announced today.
"Livermore's veterans have earned a nursing home that matches the high quality of care they have always received from VA," Nicholson said. "Veterans and their families can rest assured that a world-class nursing home will be established."
Secretary Nicholson has decided to study three options to modernize or replace the current 120 bed nursing home currently on the Livermore campus with a facility that will provide nursing home care in a modern environment that supports rehabilitation and compassionate care to veterans.
Two of the options that will be studied keep the nursing home on the Livermore campus. One of these two options was added by the secretary to maximize the potential reuse of the campus.
A third option proposes increasing access to veterans and their relatives by co-locating the nursing home with a community-based outpatient clinic (CBOC) in the Central Valley area that is more accessible to veterans. The local advisory panel also supported building a new facility near a CBOC.
The secretary rejected an option also opposed by the local advisory panel that would locate a new nursing home off-campus but without the benefits of co-locating with a CBOC.
The local advisory panel will schedule a public meeting to review the secretary’s decision and provide recommendations for implementing the studies announced today.
Public meetings are held under the Federal Advisory Committee Act and require a 15 day public notification prior to the meeting. The final recommendations to the secretary will be developed by VA consultants by the end of this calendar year.
