The Soldiers' Home in Chelsea provides a complete range of health care services to honorably discharged Massachusetts veterans residing in all but the four westernmost counties of the Commonwealth. Comprehensive medical services are provided to 120 veterans through the Home's Quigley Memorial Hospital, including acute care, long-term skilled nursing care, physical rehabilitation, Alzheimer's disease care, and ambulatory surgery. Eighteen outpatient clinics handle nearly 19,000 visits annually from Home residents and other eligible veterans seeking a variety of specialized services, including dentistry, dermatology, urology, ophthalmology, and rheumatology. Domicilary facilities provide more than 300 veterans with residential and, when necessary, intermediate medical and support services. The Home also operates a school of practical nursing and serves as a teaching site for medical, dental, and allied health training programs.

Budget Recommendations

The amount recommended for Fiscal Year 1998 will enable the Soldiers' Home in Chelsea to provide the same level of services as in Fiscal Year 1997.

Budgetary Direct Appropriations

SOLDIERS' HOME IN CHELSEA
4180-0100	For the maintenance of the soldiers' home in Chelsea	17,550,595

CHELSEA SOLDIERS' HOME ALZHEIMER'S TREATMENT UNIT
4180-0101	For the maintenance of a specialized unit for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease patients at the soldiers' home in Chelsea	446,744

Budgetary Retained Revenues

CHELSEA SOLDIERS' HOME LICENSE PLATE FEES RETAINED REVENUE
4180-1100	The soldiers' home in Chelsea may expend revenues in an amount not to exceed one hundred thirty-two thousand dollars for facility maintenance and patient care; provided, that sixty percent of all revenues generated pursuant to section two of chapter ninety of the General Laws, through the purchase of license plates with the designation VETERAN by eligible veterans of the commonwealth, upon compensating the registry of motor vehicles for the costs associated with said license plates, shall be deposited into and for the purposes of this account	132,000