Georgia War Veterans Home
The Georgia War Veterans Home, situated on approximately 17 acres in the central Georgia city of Milledgeville, is a 550-bed facility licensed and certified to provide skilled nursing and domiciliary care to aged and infirm Georgia war veterans. United Veteran Services of Georgia, Inc., a subsidiary of UHS-Pruitt Corporation of Norcross, Georgia, operates the home for the Department of Veterans Service under a contractual agreement.
The home operated four skilled nursing care facilities in 2008, which included the Richard B. Russell Building with 120 budgeted beds; the Carl Vinson Building with 55 budgeted beds; the Joe T Wood Building with 150 budgeted beds; and the Alzheimer’s Wing of the Pete Wheeler Building with 20 budgeted beds.
The Pete Wheeler Building also housed 80 budgeted beds for veterans in need of domiciliary (residential/assisted living) care. Unfortunately, due to statewide budget decreases for fiscal year 2009 related to reduced revenues coming to the State of Georgia because of the national and state economic downturn, the department determined the best way to continue to maximize assistance to the veterans in Georgia was to indefinitely suspend domiciliary services at the Georgia War Veterans Home on November 30, 2008.
This action affected only 81 veteran residents of the domiciliary; however, it preserved making available skilled nursing care services to over 345 veterans at the home who need more intense nursing care.
All of these domiciliary residents were placed in other housing situations around the state consistent with their medical needs and none of them were made homeless by this action.
In addition the primary mission of the department, assistance to veterans, was preserved through the department’s field offices and claims staff to serve the 765,000 veterans in the state with benefits and claims assistance that generates over $2.0 Billion in federal moneys into the economy of the state each year.
The Georgia Department of Veterans Service field office serving Baldwin, Hancock, Putnam, Washington, and Wilkinson counties is housed on the first floor of the Vinson Building.
The Office of Regulatory Services of the Georgia Department of Human Resources conducted an unannounced licensure survey of each skilled nursing unit of the home in October and found no deficiencies. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs annual survey of the home was conducted in May and the home was determined to be in compliance with VA standards and they certified the home for continued operation as a state veterans home.
The veteran patients at the home received 126,270 days of skilled nursing care and 40,260 days of domiciliary care. The skilled nursing care units at the home admitted 89 patients during the year and had 42 discharges in 2008. The average length of stay for current skilled veteran patients is 797 days.
Federal assistance in funding a portion of the cost of providing care to veterans in the home amounted to $8,924,198. As in previous years, many veterans service organizations, civic and church groups, continued their sponsorship of numerous activities such as movies, games, dance parties, bingo, picnics, and other activities and programs for the general well-being of the veteran patients at the home.
Groups and individuals that comprised the equivalent of 1,644 individual volunteers providing in excess of 3,534 hours of time valued at over $35,340 presented over 502 activities during the year.
The value of in-kind donations made available to the home was $138,433.80. Groups and individuals also provided direct monetary donations of $96,364.30 in the year.