American Legion System Worth Saving visits Lovell medical center, outside Chicago, where both VA and DoD provide care to the nation’s veterans and servicemembers.
Joseph and Genevieve Petruzzelli both earned their rights to health care and other benefits through their military service. She served in the Air Force while he is an Army veteran.
But while Genevieve raved about the health care she receives at the Capt. James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center, outside of Chicago, Joseph has a different perspective.
“I remember when women's health care was three little rooms by audiology,” she says. “I also see advances with the main hospital. I've also seen advancements with women's care. I wanted to let you know that I can see that they're trying to serve veterans the best they can.”
Joseph said that while his wife makes her appointments without an issue, the same has not been true for him. “I'm not sure if it's because of status for some reason, or because I am working with Northwestern Medicine Center for a month on paperwork. My concern is my care is so much different than hers.”
The Petruzzellis, both members of American Legion Post 771 in Gurnee, Ill., shared their experiences during an American Legion System Worth Saving (SWS) town hall Aug. 4 at their post. About 40 veterans, VA staff members and others attended the town hall.
Community care, women’s health, the center’s dental facility, transportation issues and more were among the topics veterans discussed. The town hall was part of the three-day SWS visit to the Lovell center. These regular visits are an example of how The American Legion works together with local VA staff on forging solutions to ensure that veterans are receiving the best health care possible.
Dr. Robert Buckley, a retired Navy captain, has been the director of Lovell since 2018.
“We are honored to be one of the few facilities around the country to be selected for a System Worth Saving visit,” he said.” It's really an honor, a privilege and it's been great. When you have The American Legion, people show up.”
The Lovell medical center is known for its dental facility, progress in the Electronic Health Record Modernization effort and partnership with the Department of Defense (DoD).
When it opened in October 2010, Lovell became the first federal health-care center that combines VA and DoD into a single, fully integrated health-care facility.
“It wasn’t until the turn of the century when both departments felt that they were getting to a point where they may not be able to support all the things needed to support a hospital, an acute inpatient community hospital environment to provide the care that you would need if you had to be in the hospital,” Buckley recalled. “And one of the beautiful things about that is folks from both DoD and VA got together and said, ‘What could we do to preserve a hospital?’”
Buckley oversees the delivery of health care to over 76,000 veterans and active-duty personnel at the 365-bed hospital and its associated clinics. He manages a workforce of nearly 3,200 employees, including both VA and Navy personnel, as well as contractors. The bottom line is to provide the best health care for veterans and servicemembers.
“We’re always trying to get kind of a learning lab here for integration between the two departments,” he said.
Lovell is also focusing on mental health treatment, which mirrors The American Legion’s Be the One mission to reduce suicide rates among veterans and servicemembers. Buckley said the VA center modernized and opened two 16-bed psychiatric units.
“That's super important because most mental health care and services are done in outpatient settings,” he said. “Sometimes patients need to be admitted and really do need to come into the hospital for an acute crisis. And it's good that we have 32-bed capacity.”
During the town hall, American Legion representatives, VA staff and others were on hand to address issues and questions raised by veterans related to their experiences at the Lovell health-care center.
Post 771 Commander Jim Walsh, an Air Force veteran, was honored to host the town hall.
“It's a huge opportunity because we've had people at meetings complaining about the VA,” he said. “It was nice having the director come here and talk about it and talk through the problems. As we saw, there's a few people who had big problems and there's a lot of people who said they receive excellent care. It’s really nice that the director addressed all the problems that were brought up.”
In addition to Buckley, other VA staff members were in attendance and were providing assistance to veterans after the town hall’s question-and-answer session concluded.
“I'm going to give Dr. Buckley credit because he brought his people out here who are directly responsible for making these changes,” Walsh said. “The veterans are going to get better care because they are able to speak directly to those who can help.”
Commander Roy Smith led a delegation of department representatives who also participated in a tour of Lovell earlier in the day. Smith, a member of Post 914 in Louisville, Ill., came away impressed.
“The opportunity to tour Lovell today was great; it is a wonderful facility,” the Navy veteran said. “It's very clean. It's new, it's modern. The unique thing about Lovell is that the Navy uses the other half of it. They share resources and doctors and dentists."
Each year, the Legion’s Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation Commission conducts a series of site visits to VA medical facilities and regional offices across the country. While on site, American Legion representatives meet with veterans, their families and VA administrators and employees to discuss issues and solutions at each site. These observations are compiled into a System Worth Saving report that is distributed to VA officials, members of Congress and the public.
It's part of the mission of The American Legion — supporting fellow veterans in getting the health care and benefits earned through their service.
- System Worth Saving