A Midwest VA center holds the key to better outcomes for US service members

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Frank Larkin is a former Navy SEAL, 40th U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms and father of a Navy SEAL son who died by suicide, He is chairman of Warrior Call and a board member of the Chicago-based Invisible Wounds Foundation.

A Chicago‑area Department of Veterans Affairs hospital demonstrates something long promised to the nation’s military personnel but that is lacking around the country: continuity of care as a service member exits the armed forces and transitions into veteran status.

An overarching goal at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center is to eliminate the bureaucratic abyss that can engulf service members and their medical records once leaving the armed forces. At Lovell, Patients move through a system designed to follow them — linking the Department of Defense health service and the VA. In doing so, Lovell offers a model of integration that Washington has discussed for decades.

Lovell is the nation’s only fully integrated, jointly operated VA–DOD hospital. That structure matters most during the transition out of military service, when service members can slip through the cracks and increased health risks often emerge. Continuity of care during this period is essential to guarantee that newly minted veterans stay connected to health supports and get the assistance they need.

And for good reason. The year immediately following military service can be fraught with both physical and mental health issues. In a study of veterans, VA researchers found that at both three and nine months after leaving the military, 53% of respondents said they had chronic physical health conditions, while nearly 33% reported chronic mental health conditions at both time intervals, including depression.

Possible mental health concerns are particularly acute when leaving the service. The Government Accountability Office last year found that in a review of records pertaining to 50,000 service members leaving the military, two-thirds worried they might have mental health issues requiring a clinical follow-up, yet more than half refused referrals.

Suicide is major problem following separation. A Rand Corp. study noted last year that the risk of suicide “steadily increases during the first year following separation.”

In the most recent annual report from the VA on suicide, the overall rate of suicide among veterans was 35.2 deaths per 100,000 people, but the rate is higher for veterans recently separated from the military at 41.2 deaths per 100,000. That compares to the national suicide rate for all Americans at 18.2 deaths per 100,000.

A central enabler of continuity of care in the handoff from military service to veteran status is in place at Lovell: a single, shared federal electronic health record jointly used by the VA and DOD. In March 2024, the two departments went live at the facility with the same interoperable system, marking the first time both agencies deployed the platform together at a single site.

What the Lovell model adds is the prospect of seamless data flow. Information generated while a service member is still under DOD care is immediately available to VA clinicians, reducing duplication and delays.

This improvement in continuity of care and overall case management is especially consequential for traumatic brain injury, which dramatically increases the risk of suicide. TBIs — particularly mild or blast‑related injuries — often present with subtle or delayed symptoms that evolve over time. If medical records fragment at separation, those warning signs are easily missed. The benefit of the situation at Lovell is that clinicians can correlate exposure history and emerging symptoms, supporting earlier identification and intervention.

The hope is that the model unfolding in Chicago can be expanded elsewhere, serving as a bulwark against the “institutional betrayal” to which veterans are subjected that pushes them further into isolation and suicide risk. The term refers to the bureaucracy designed to help during transition to veteran status, yet that veterans often describe as unresponsive, incoherent or even outright adversarial.

Keeping veterans connected into support systems, especially during the heightened risk period of separation from the military, is vital. With a more effective records system that allows for better overall case management, the Chicago experience holds out the possibility of improving the lives of veterans by giving them every reason to stay connected — and alive.