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Paralyzed Veterans of America warns staffing shortages and aging facilities threaten specialized spinal cord care
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Summary
The Paralyzed Veterans of America told the committees that VA spinal cord injury and disorders centers face high vacancy rates, aging infrastructure and local incidents that constrained bed availability and risked patient safety.
Robert Thomas, national president of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, told the joint Veterans' Affairs committees that VA's network of spinal cord injury and disorders (SCI/D) centers is facing acute staffing shortages and aging infrastructure that are threatening access to specialized, life‑saving care.
Thomas said one SCI/D center was using only half its beds because staffing vacancies exceeded 50 percent and that the broader SCI/D system has been short hundreds of nurses, with vacancy rates near 35 percent. "Without proper staffing, veterans may be forced to accept care in the community even when it's not the quality of type of care they will receive at a VA facility and most importantly, when it is not their decision to do so," Thomas testified.
He also described infrastructure strain: the average age of an SCI/D center is nearly 40 years, Thomas said, and centers experienced major incidents such as a plumbing failure that flooded half a center and required a month of repairs to restore services. He urged Congress to invest in staffing and infrastructure to preserve VA specialty care and associated research.
Thomas and other witnesses warned that workforce disruptions, including recent administrative firings and contract changes, were amplifying staffing shortages and could curtail clinical and research services central to SCI/D care and to the PACT Act's implementation. The PVA asked lawmakers to act before further closures, burnouts and program degradations occur.
Committee members said they would follow up with oversight requests to VA on vacancy rates, staff protections for specialty services, and infrastructure backlogs so they could evaluate and fund needed staffing and capital investments.
