TxDOT project underway on U.S. 54 in northeast El Paso

EL PASO, Texas – Drivers in northeast El Paso will face with closures and detours in the coming months as the Texas Department of Transportation completes the U.S. 54 Widening and Illumination Project.

An extra lane of traffic will be added from Hondo Pass Avenue to Loop 375 Transmountain, and more lighting will be added to create better visibility.

Improvements to area intersections are planned, including turnarounds at Hondo Pass Avenue, Diana Drive and Loop 375 Transmountain.

TxDOT spokeswoman Jennifer Wright said the project will change entrance and exit ramps to improve the flow of traffic.

"What we’re doing is putting the off-ramp first and the on-ramp second, so that the merge action happens on the Gateway, where traffic is much slower," said Wright. "It’s a much safer condition, and it won’t slow down traffic on the main lanes quite so much."

Area residents can expect a two-mile shared-use northbound path from Hondo Pass to Transmountain.

The $35 million project started in November, and is expected to be complete by March 2019.

To keep up with all closures and detours around El Paso click here to be directed to the KVIA traffic page.

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New Parents See Firsthand Best of Care In Region At University Medical Center And El Paso Children’s Hospital

(Photo: by Leslie Lujan)

Parents Tamara and Anthony Paris, both new to El Paso, wanted the best care for their first baby. During her 25th week of pregnancy, Tamara developed a severe case of preeclampsia, a complication putting her pregnancy at high risk. Her doctors immediately referred her to University Medical Center of El Paso’s state-of-the-art Labor and Delivery Department, where Dr. Lisa Moore, Division Chief of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Texas Tech, quickly moved to get Tamara’s baby delivered.

Born at 25 weeks and weighing 1 pound, 11 ounces, Noah Rae Paris was born with an unrelenting spirit. Baby Noah Rae was then transferred to the Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at El Paso Children’s Hospital.

“The teamwork between University Medical Center, Texas Tech and El Paso Children’s Hospital has been seamless,” said Anthony Paris Jr. “Knowing my wife was getting the best care from the UMC team and my child was in the hands of the best experts on the floor above me, truly has made this experience much easier to get through.”

For the last three and a half months, Noah Rae has called El Paso Children’s Hospital home. Her dedicated clinical team has watched her grow and make great strides. Mr. Paris was deployed during Noah Rae’s stay, but fortunately special cameras at the hospital (NicVIEW cameras) enabled him to be part of his daughter’s amazing and unrelenting success even from hundreds of miles away.

Noah Rae’s due date was originally scheduled for the first week of February. The Paris’, now in El Paso full time, are ready to welcome their baby girl home this week as originally planned.

Because of the coordinated expert care provided by University Medical Center, Texas Tech Physicians and El Paso Children’s Hospital’s Level IV NICU, Baby Paris is flourishing and ready to take on the world.

Members of the editorial and news staff of the USA Today Network were not involved in the creation of this content.

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1-star El Paso VA in ‘aggressive new’ national improvement plan

Dr. David Shulkin, secretary of Veterans Affairs, tells USA TODAY reporter Donovan Slack that the VA remains in intensive care, but that progress is being made. USA TODAY Opinion

(Photo: Times file photo)

The El Paso Veterans Affairs Health Care System is among one-star VA medical facilities set for an "aggressive new approach" for rapid improvement, the VA said.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday announced new strategies to improve low-performing facilities nationwide.

The VA has 15 one-star facilities across the nation, including the El Paso VA and the West Texas VA Health Care System in Big Spring.

For two years in a row, the El Paso VA has received a one-star rating out of a possible five stars in internal rankings of nearly 150 VA medical centers.

Because of the ratings, the El Paso VA is categorized as a "High" risk facility even as improvements are already being made, said retired Col. Michael Amaral, director of the El Paso VA medical center.

The categories range from "Watch," "High," "Critical" and "VACO receivership," for facilities in the worse condition and taken over by the Veterans Affairs Central Office.

Retired Col. Michael Amaral discusses his role as director of the El Paso Veterans Affairs Health Care System. Amaral previously has served as chief of staff for William Beaumont Army Medical Center.

(Photo: RUDY GUTIERREZ/EL PASO TIMES FILE)

Amaral said his primary focus is not the star rating but the underlying metrics.

"My primary focus is our patients’ ability to get care when they need it, that they get it in a timely manner and when they are here they are treated nicely," Amaral said.

Amaral said that the El Paso VA system has seen improvement. Many of the metrics use 12-month averages, so it can take several months for changes to appear on the report.

The El Paso VA has lost some primary care providers and recruitment has been a challenge, Amaral said.

Amaral, former chief of staff for William Beaumont Army Medical Center, was named director of the El Paso VA system in November 2016.

The El Paso VA system had been led by interim directors since former Director John Mendoza was appointed deputy network director for the VA Northwest Health Care Network in November 2014.

In ratings released last year, the El Paso VA ranked poorly regarding mental health continuity of care, or the ability of veterans to get consistent mental health care from the VA.

In 2016, the El Paso VA also struggled to reduce patient wait times for appointments, fill vacant positions and improve the quality of care.

More: El Paso VA gets lowest rating from internal VA rankings for second year in a row

U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, who has been advocating for improvements in veteran care in El Paso, said he was “disappointed and concerned” when the ratings were released last fall.

O’Rourke noted that the El Paso VA had made progress but had performed poorly in providing mental health care.

The El Paso VA had increased the number of mental health care providers from 68 in January 2013 to 112 in November, O’Rourke said. The average wait time for a mental health appointment had improved to 7.57 days, down from 14.07 days in June 2016.

The VA said this week that it was taking an "aggressive new approach" to produce improvements at low performing centers. Those steps include:

• Centralized, national leadership with Dr. Peter Almenoff, director of the VA office of health care improvement, assigned to oversee improvements at each of the centers.

• Analysis and identification of specific targets for improvement based on clinical performance indicators.

• National resources using a team of experts using statistics to track progress and who can be deployed to assist medical centers.

• Accountability in which medical center leadership may be changed if facilities fail to make substantial progress as they are reviewed quarterly.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin

"President Trump has made it clear that our veterans deserve only the best when it comes to their health care, and that’s why we are focusing on improving our lower performing facilities nationwide," VA Secretary David Shulkin said in a statement.

"We will employ tight timelines for facilities to demonstrate improvement, and if low performance persists, we will make swift changes — including replacing facility leaders — until we achieve the rapid improvements that veterans and taxpayers expect from VA," Shulkin said.

The Department of Veterans Affairs did not start releasing the star ratings until USA TODAY obtained and published them for the first time in December 2016. The VA then made a commitment to posting them annually.

Daniel Borunda may be reached at 546-6102; dborunda@elpasotimes.com; @BorundaDaniel on Twitter.

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