Largest VA Contract Ever Honors Commitment to Veterans
WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced a $364.9 million contract to help bring to reality years of planning for a new world-class medical facility in Las Vegas by September 2011.
The project represents the largest construction contract ever awarded by VA.
“This 790,000 square-foot facility will support 90 inpatient hospital beds and state-of-the-art clinical services for a modern medical center that will proudly honor our nation's commitments to its veterans,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake.
The contract was awarded to the joint venture construction firm of Clark/Hunt (JV) of Las Vegas. Previous contracts have been awarded to construct a 120-bed nursing home, energy center and the foundations for the hospital.
The medical center, which will be part of VA's Southern Nevada Health Care System, will provide medical, surgical and mental health care, as well as ambulatory care facilities. It will meet the needs of a growing Las Vegas area veterans population with a full-service facility providing radiology, magnetic resonance imaging, nuclear medicine, pharmacy, laboratories, education, and diagnostic and treatment clinics.
The new hospital, separate nursing home and ancillary structures are being located on a 150-acre campus in North Las Vegas at Pecos Road and the Woodbury Beltway near Nellis Air Force Base on an undeveloped parcel of land transferred from the Bureau of Land Management.
Features of the new hospital include the capability to remain fully operational in the event of a loss of public utilities with full emergency power, reserve water supplies, and waste-water storage capacity for up to four days.
The project also involves environmentally friendly "sustainable design" elements in its planning, including the reuse of building materials and design elements for the building that will promote energy efficiency.
The new facility supplements existing inpatient services for Nevada's estimated 246,000 veterans in facilities at Reno and in shared space at Nellis Air Force base. VA also operates 10 outpatient clinics in Nevada, four of them in Las Vegas.
In fiscal year 2007, VA provided 5,467 inpatient admissions and 690,036 outpatient visits in these existing facilities.
