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Bay Pines director finds honor in serving those who have served
By MARY BURRELL
| Article published on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2006 |
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BAY PINES – Health care certainly is changing, and Bay Pines VA Healthcare System is keeping step with those changes.
The new director, Wallace “Wally” Hopkins, explained that the name change – from Bay Pines VA Medical Center – was made to better reflect the full spectrum of health services provided.
Bay Pines has eight clinics from Naples to Fort Myers to south St. Petersburg, an on-site nursing home, program facilities, Joshua House, mental center and nursing home, to name just a few of the services.
“We’re more than just a hospital,” said Hopkins. “Our community based clinics alone have had a remarkable success.”
There are plans to upgrade the imagery service, increase the services of the eye clinic, offer in-house sleep studies and even offer bariatric surgery (for weight loss).
Hospitals run by the Veterans Administration are certainly not what they used to be. The quality of care has risen dramatically, Hopkins said, and the drug benefit program is especially popular.
The hospital at Bay Pines is not what it once was either. Steeped in history and solidly supported by the community, the medical center has still had its share of problems, most notably the computer system failures that has plagued its management.
The medical center has moved forward, said Hopkins, who took the helm March, 2005, moving from Amarillo, Texas, where he was director of the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center for nine years, and director of the VA Medical Center in Waco six years before that.
He has been in the hospital administrative field work since 1975. Coming to Bay Pines, he said, was a calling.
“There’s no secret Bay Pines has had its problems. I just felt it was something I ought to do,” Hopkins said.
Once he arrived, he was pleasantly surprised.
“What I found here is that we have a wonderful group of employees and volunteers serving a well gratified group of people. It just doesn’t get better than that.”
He said that Bay Pines scores high in patient satisfaction scores, and that is really what is most important. The hospital, he said, makes a huge contribution to the community.
Bay Pines does not treat most of the soldiers returning from Iraq because they are brought to the polytrauma center in Tampa. Still, Wallace learned a great deal about the region and the effort of the American soldiers there during a volunteer stint in 2004 at a women’s hospital in Afghanistan. It helped deepen his dedication at home.
“I felt a commitment more than ever to serve the people who serve our country,” he said. “It’s really a privilege to try to take care of them.
He has plenty of opportunities to do so. Bay Pines saw 93,846 individual patients in 2005. That is compared to 49,753 in the year 2000. It is projected that the number of patients will rise to 96,474 in 2006.
Originally built in 1932 and recently rebuilt, the hospital continues to increase its capacity, with the emergency room being enlarged, and the intensive care units being renovated. An addition is also planned for the mental health facility. A new Ft. Myers facility will be built in 2007.
Following the national shift from in-patient care, the facility sees up to 3,000 outpatients in one day. The domiciliary building houses various programs, including the new sexual trauma unit. There is a residential rehabilitation program, and a drug and alcohol treatment center.
Hopkins and his staff are able to continually upgrade the hospital with the use of a simple administrative tool: a good budget. The goal is simple.
“We plan to take care of as many people as we can,” said Hopkins.
Hopkins served in Vietnam as an officer in the U.S. Air Force. His son, Lance Cpl. Nick Hopkins, a U.S. Marine, was deployed to Iraq. His daughter, Laurie, still lives in Texas.
Making the transition from Texas to Seminole was not an easy one, he said, as Pinellas County is so congested. His wife, Susan, a talented musician, has found a place in a community church, and like other transplants in the area, they are getting accustomed to being without family and lifelong friends.
But they do enjoy the area, especially the beach. And for Hopkins, it is clear that his work is the focus of his life.
He said that he shares a vision with chief of staff Dr. Jeff Van Buskirk, and nursing executive director Joy Esterly, along with associate Bay Pines director Kaye Gree. They want to increase the staff and attract more medical students to work and learn at Bay Pines. Presently there are 23 residents from the University of South Florida.
“It just takes time,” the director said, and obviously, he feels the investment is worth it. “These are special people,” Hopkins said. “They are veterans.”
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Article published on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2006
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