[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 46 (Friday, April 1, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E599]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   WALLACE HOPKINS RETIRES AFTER 36 YEARS OF SERVICE TO OUR NATION'S 
                                VETERANS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. C.W. BILL YOUNG

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, April 1, 2011

  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is with a mixture of happiness 
and sadness that I let my colleagues know of the retirement today of 
Wallace M. Hopkins, the Director of the Bay Pines VA Health Care 
System, after 36 years of dedicated and devoted service to our nation's 
veterans and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
  It has been my pleasure to work with Mr. Hopkins for the past six 
years since his assignment to Bay Pines, which I have the privilege to 
represent. While at Bay Pines and throughout his career, Wally Hopkins' 
work in the field of Healthcare Systems Administration and Management 
has enhanced the quality of health care for our veterans for nearly 
four decades. He began his distinguished VA career in September 1975 as 
an Administrative Resident at the Iowa City VAMC. During the next 35 
years, Mr. Hopkins served in increasingly more responsible 
administrative positions in Washington, Indiana, and Minnesota. He 
became the Director of the Brockton/West Roxbury VAMC in 1988 and then 
moved to Waco, Texas serving as Director there until 1996. Before 
coming to Bay Pines in 2005, he served as the Director of the Amarillo, 
Texas VA Health Care System.
  Mr. Speaker, I am most familiar with Mr. Hopkins' leadership and 
commitment to the care of our veterans while he has served as Director 
of the Bay Pines Healthcare System, one of the largest and most complex 
healthcare systems in the Department of Veterans Affairs. The numerous 
accomplishments and accolades that the staff at Bay Pines has earned 
during the tenure of Mr. Hopkins are indicative of his commitment to 
excellence. These awards include the 2008 Robert W. Carey Performance 
Excellence Award, the 2009 Robert W. Carey Performance Excellence 
Trophy, and 2010 Robert W. Carey Circle of Excellence Award, the three 
highest honors a VA hospital can earn. In 2007, 2008 and 2009, Bay 
Pines was ranked one of the highest of all Veterans Affairs Medical 
Centers in national performance measures for quality healthcare, access 
to services, and veteran and employee satisfaction rates. The Bay Pines 
Nursing Service has been nationally recognized with two 2007 Office of 
Nursing Service Innovation Awards and in 2009, they won the top award 
for the ``Let's Get Certified'' campaign by having the highest increase 
in individual nursing achievements of specialty certifications. Bay 
Pines received a top award from the American Heart Association and the 
American Stroke Association for implementing measures adhering to the 
two organizations' highest standards of stroke care and treatment. The 
Associations' Get with the Guidelines Stroke (GWTG-Stroke) Silver 
Performance Achievement Award recognized Bay Pines for its 
comprehensive system of high standard measures and for being the first 
VA facility to be recognized with the Performance Achievement Award. 
National Systems Redesign awards were also presented to Bay Pines for 
streamlining patient flow process in the inpatient and outpatient 
setting.
  Bay Pines has undergone much needed growth in its services and 
facilities under the leadership of Wally Hopkins. These include the 
expansion of the emergency department with state of the art imaging and 
diagnostic equipment, a completely renovated and expanded suite of 
Intensive Care Units, numerous enhancements and expansion efforts in 
types of cardiology services offered, expanded high-tech equipment for 
radiology and nuclear medicine including a new PET CT and new Radiation 
Oncology and Cancer Infusion Center and a fully renovated, completely 
self sustaining laundry plant that supports three major Veterans 
Healthcare Administration facilities. His direct interest in serving 
the clinical needs of veterans is apparent in the number of major and 
minor construction projects currently taking place throughout the Bay 
Pines Healthcare System. At Bay Pines, these include the Mental Health 
Center, Inpatient Ward Renovation Project, Outpatient Surgery Center, 
Eye Center, Research Center and outside of the main campus the Lee 
County Clinic and the expansion of services and the nearly doubling the 
amount of Community Based Outpatients Clinic space throughout the 
system's ten county catchment area.
  Wallace Hopkins' commitment to caring for our Nation's veterans comes 
from the heart. He is a highly decorated veteran himself having served 
in Vietnam as an Air Force F-4 reconnaissance pilot. He earned a Master 
of Science degree in Health Care Administration in 1976 from Trinity 
University in San Antonio, Texas. Prior to his graduate studies, he 
earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Southwest 
Texas State University in 1968 and he is a Fellow of the American 
College of Healthcare Executives.
  Mr. Speaker, as I said at the outset, it is with some degree of 
sadness that we say goodbye to Wally Hopkins as the Director of the Bay 
Pines Healthcare System. He has led the staff there to the pinnacle of 
quality care for the veterans of our community. But I know that the 
skill and dedication with which he has led will pass down to the next 
leadership team and will continue to ensure that our veterans receive 
the highest quality of care which they have earned and which they 
deserve.
  And I am happy for Mr. Hopkins and his wife Susan, who has been a 
true partner in his life-long service to veterans, as he retires from a 
career in which he has excelled. He is a true patriot as anyone who has 
heard him speak on Memorial Day can attest. And I am happy that he will 
remain a part of our community in which he has been active in many 
important areas since arriving in Pinellas County six years ago. Please 
join me in saying thank you to Mr. Wallace M. Hopkins for a job and a 
career well done and wishing him and his wife all the best in their 
retirement.

                          ____________________