Northport VA staffing increases but shortages remain in some areas

Staffing levels at the Northport VA Medical Center have increased by nearly 14% in the two years since federal officials proposed shuttering most of its primary services, but Long Island's only veterans hospital still has significant vacancies in key fields such as nursing, radiology and housekeeping, officials said Thursday.

The center, which serves the region's roughly 100,000 veterans, has faced widespread challenges in recent years, including lackluster hiring, frequent leadership changes, aging infrastructure and efforts by a Veterans Affairs commission to eliminate most of the care currently provided on the 268-acre campus.

But in advance of Veterans Day, hospital officials, lawmakers and advocates say Northport may have turned a corner, boosting its hiring and spending millions to improve conditions on its near-century old campus.

Since fiscal 2021, the hospital's workforce has grown from 1,711 employees to 1,948, as Northport hired, or is in the process of hiring, nearly 60 registered nurses, 20 physicians, 34 nursing assistants and more than 40 medical support assistants, hospital officials said. 

Meanwhile, the federal Department of Veterans Affairs this week touted a massive staffing surge, hiring 61,000 employees nationwide last year — its highest rate of workforce growth in more than 15 years.

But even as the hospital boosts its ranks, in part from three highly attended job fairs, it still has nearly 140 vacancies, data shows. They include openings for more than 40 housekeeping aides, 31 medical support assistants and 30 nursing assistants.

"Our recruitment efforts were supported using higher salary rates … for candidates, education debt repayment program and recruitment incentives," Northport spokesman Fernando Burgos Ortiz said. "We continue to work to increase hiring and retention across the hospital."

An August report from the VA's Office of Inspector General found "severe occupational staffing shortages" at Northport in several key fields including nurses, nursing assistants and in neurology, along with nonclinical areas such as medical support assistance, maintenance mechanics and custodial workers. 

Northport was not alone. The IG found every VA hospital surveyed reported severe staffing shortages in at least two fields, with more than 90% struggling to hire nurses and 70% lacking medical support assistance.

An IG report from May 2022 painted a similar workforce picture at the Northport VA, also noting staffing shortages in radiology, food service, medical records, medical supplies and engineering.

A March 2022 report by the VA's Asset and Infrastructure Review Commission proposed shifting or closing most of the Northport's primary services, including its emergency room, citing $600 million in needed building repairs, declining demand for inpatient services and a growing need for outpatient services from the region's aging veteran population.

Senate Majority LeaderChuck Schumer, who helped block the controversial proposal, said the hospital is moving in the right direction.

"Northport is expanding and enhancing the VAMC’s emergency department, which the AIR report recommended closing, and there are other, new investments coming down the pike," Schumer said. "We’ve seen an increase of over 200 employees at the Northport VAMC, and with the largest veteran population in New York, we must continue to do everything in our power to ensure our vets get the medical treatment they earned.”

Even as staffing at the Northport VA grows, the number of patients seen in-house has trickled steadily down. 

In fiscal 2023, which ended on Sept. 30, the hospital provided care to about 27,000 veterans during 546,450 appointments, Burgos Ortiz said. One year earlier, the hospital saw 29,000 veterans during 555,573 appointments.

"Northport VA Medical Center is also undertaking several infrastructural improvements to our main campus, which we believe will play a pivotal role in expanding and improving the services we deliver to our veterans," Burgos Ortiz said, pointing to enhancements, currently underway or expected to start in the coming years, to its Emergency Department, intensive care unit, operating rooms and dialysis center. 

James McKenna, a disabled combat service veteran who served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, visits the Northport VA at least monthly and has seen improvements in scheduling appointments and wait times.

"I've been going there a lot. I get all my services from there," said McKenna, who serves as vice commander of  American Legion Post 694 in Northport. "If they have a staffing shortage, I haven't experienced it." 

Patrick Donohue of Islip, who served in Afghanistan in the Army’s 101st Airborne Division and who runs Project 9 Line, an Islip organization that helps transition Long Island veterans back into civilian life, said the Northport VA outsources too many medical services to third-party contractors, including health screenings associated with the PACT Act. The legislation, signed by President Joe Biden last year, extends benefits to service members from Vietnam, the Gulf War and post-9/11 era conflicts who have cancers and 22 other severe illnesses linked to burn pits, airborne pollution, Agent Orange and other pollutants.

"I've had good experiences there and I've had bad experiences there," Donohue said of the Northport VA. "But the wait times are pretty similar to those of private facilities. I know vets that won't go there at all. And I know vets that swear by it."

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.