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 Fiscal Year 1999 budget recommendation includes $169,903 in additional funding to support the operation of a 16 bed long-term care unit scheduled to open in January, 1998.

Budgetary Direct Appropriations

SOLDIERS` HOME IN CHELSEA
4180-0100	For the operation of the soldiers` home in Chelsea, including a specialized unit for the treatment of Alzheimer`s disease patients	19,083,306

Budgetary Retained Revenues

CHELSEA SOLDIERS` HOME LICENSE PLATE FEES RETAINED REVENUE
4180-1100	The soldiers` home in Chelsea is hereby authorized to expend revenues in an amount not to exceed $132,000 for facility maintenance and patient care; provided, that 60 per cent of all revenues generated pursuant to section 2 of chapter 90 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; and provided further, that notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, for the purpose of accommodating timing discrepancies between the receipt of retained revenues and related expenditures, said soldiers` home may incur expenses and the comptroller may certify for payment amounts not to exceed the lower of this authorization or the most recent revenue estimate therefor as reported in the state accounting system	132,000