VISN 12 - VA Great Lakes Health Care System
VA Great Lakes Health Care System Announces New Lovell FHCC Director: Dr. Robert Buckley
August 31, 2018
VA Great Lakes Health Care System Announces New Lovell FHCC Medical Center Director: Dr. Robert Buckley
WESTCHESTER, Ill. – Renee Oshinski, Network Director, Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 12, is pleased to announce Dr. Robert Buckley has been selected as the new Medical Center Director for the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago, Ill.
As Director of the Lovell FHCC, the country’s first fully-integrated Veterans Administration and Department of Defense medical facility, Buckley will oversee the delivery of healthcare to more than 76,000 Veterans and Active Duty personnel at the 365-bed hospital and its three outpatient clinics, and its four branch clinics located at Naval Station Great Lakes. He will be responsible for an operating budget of approximately $419,000,000 and a workforce of nearly 3,200 including VA employees and uniformed Navy personnel.
Prior to his VA career, Buckley served 29 years on active duty in the U.S. Navy and retired in 2016 as a Captain, serving his last assignment as Deputy Director and Commanding Officer of the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center. He has had multiple complex and challenging healthcare leadership roles throughout the globe that make him uniquely suited to take on the most challenging roles in healthcare today. This includes serving as Chief of Staff of the 1.3 billion, tri-service Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in the National Capital area which successfully opened and gained full accreditation in 2011 under his leadership. He currently serves as the Chief of Staff, Jesse Brown VA Medical Center and has held this position since 2016.
Buckley earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from California State University, a medical degree from the Northwestern University Medical School, and Masters in Public Health from the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the San Diego State University.
About VISN 12
The VA Great Lakes Health Care System, VISN 12, with its eight medical centers, 38 outpatient clinics, eight nursing homes, and six domiciliaries, provides health care services to the 700,000 Veterans who reside within its four-state (Illinois, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Wisconsin, and Northwest Indiana) area. Facilities in VISN 12 operate 904 medical, surgical, and psychiatric hospital beds, as well as 1,009 community living center beds and 510 domiciliary beds.
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