Panel split over how board should oversee five veterans homes

Should Minnesota's five veterans homes be led by the volunteer board that was in charge when its Minneapolis home got into a regulatory quagmire two years ago, or return to the state agency that governed the home when similar problems erupted 20 years ago?

A commission appointed by the governor wrestled with that issue Wednesday and failed to reach consensus. It will try again next month.

"I have grave doubts about returning the veterans homes to the Department of Veterans Affairs," said Rosalie Kane, an expert on nursing homes and a professor at the University of Minnesota. She served on a similar commission in 1987 that recommended moving the home out of the department and to a new Veterans Homes Board.

"But the [Veterans Affairs] department has changed, and so has the complexity of running a system that has expanded from two homes to five," said Tom Mullon, also a member of the current and 1987 commissions.

The seven-member commission, at work since May to recommend how to stop the Minneapolis home from falling in and out of regulatory compliance, agreed that a strong volunteer board should continue. The question is whether the board should run the homes or advise the Department of Veterans Affairs if the department is given responsibility for the homes.

Since 2005, the state Health Department has cited the 402-bed Minneapolis home for 67 rule violations. Last year it ordered the board to hire a consultant to help straighten out the problems. To avert losing its license, the Veterans Homes Board agreed last month to pay the state up to $250,000 for two years for an outside monitor to watch over care at the home.

"I'm told that things are improving at the Minneapolis home," commission chairman Dale Thompson said Wednesday. "It's a work in progress, but the consultant said the home is now in regulatory compliance."

The commission will try to complete its work when it meets Oct. 30. It plans to send its report to the governor by early November.

Certain to be in the report is a vision for a broader mission for the homes, which serve about 860 veterans and their spouses. It will recommend that they become "centers of excellence" that offer care to thousands of other aged, frail or wounded veterans who need help but not nursing home care.

Warren Wolfe • 612-673-7253

Warren Wolfe • wolfe@startribune.com