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VA Medical Center director to retire
By Shelia Watson
Contributing Writer
Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center director William A. Mountcastle has announced plans to retire in March, drawing to a close a 37-year career with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“It has been my privilege to see and be part of many significant changes in the Veterans Health Administration that have improved quality of health care for our nation’s veteran, and increased access to the best care for these heroes,” Mountcastle said when announcing his retirement.
Mountcastle came to the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in January 2003 from the Atlanta VA Medical Center. He has served as director of the Atlanta, Nashville and Birmingham VA Medical Centers.
During his tenure in Charleston, Mountcastle provided leadership to the 117-bed tertiary care facility and its outlying community based outpatient clinics in Myrtle Beach, Savannah and Beaufort. He led the effort to build the VA/Department of Defense primary care clinic in Goose Creek, which is scheduled to open in 2008, and opened an interim clinic in North Charleston in advance of the permanent clinic.
His most recent effort was working with the Navy to provide orthopedic surgery at a clinic in Beaufort. That clinic will serve veterans from Savannah rather than requiring the veterans to drive into Charleston for such services.
In his three years at Charleston, Mountcastle implemented changes in the performance measurement system, which allows the center to benchmark more effectively against other systems. Using more than 110 indicators, the facility is able to quantify its capabilities in terms of quality, efficiency and service.
Mountcastle also led customer service and improvement efforts that resulted in VA Charleston being ranked No. 1 for inpatient satisfaction in the VA Southeast Network in 2004, and he helped the facility achieve the highest Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organization scores in three areas of any medical center in the Charleston area.
Mountcastle recently played a key role in a collaborative opportunities feasibility study between the VA and the Medical University of South Carolina, which caused him to delay his retirement plans by several months. The final report from the study was presented Dec. 12 to VA Undersecretary for Health Dr. Jonathan B. Perlin, House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., and HVAC Subcommittee on Health Chairman Rep. Henry Brown, R-S.C.
“The study produced a full array of options for consideration,” Mountcastle said, “and each of those must be measured by whether or not the option is a good deal for the veterans.”
The VA Undersecretary for Health is now reviewing the report.
“We have done so much to really focus on and meet the needs of veterans where they are,” Mountcastle said. “And now we are reaching out to our returning combat veterans and our veterans from earlier conflicts to make sure they have the best care possible. That’s what they deserve, and I am so very proud to have been part of providing that care for them.”
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