Julia Jacobs, Matt Stevens and Dave Philipps

<h1>An employee of the Department of Veterans Affairs was shot and injured at a VA hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday evening and a suspect was in custody, officials said.</h1>

No one else was harmed during the shooting, which took place at the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center at about 6:20 p.m., said Mary Kay Rutan, a spokeswoman for the medical center’s network.

The injured employee, whose name was not released, was taken to another hospital and was in stable condition, she said, adding that the facility was secure and would be operational Thursday.

The FBI had taken over the investigation as of Wednesday night, Rutan said. She did not release any information about the suspect, including whether the person was a patient at the medical center.

An FBI spokesman said agents were en route to the scene late Wednesday but did not provide any additional information.

The West Palm Beach VA Medical Center, about 75 miles north of Miami on Florida’s eastern coast, is a general medical, psychiatric and surgical facility, according to its website.

The 153-bed facility opened in 1995 and “provides health services to veterans throughout South Florida,” both at the main facility in West Palm Beach and six contractor-operated outpatient clinics, a 2017 report said. The facility also operates a 108-bed “community living center” and a 13-bed “blind rehabilitation service,” according to the report. During the 2017 fiscal year, the facility served about 60,000 veterans, the report said.

The West Palm Beach VA Medical Center is one of about 170 medical centers and nearly 1,000 clinics run by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Together, they treat about 9 million veteran patients each year.

In recent years, the system has struggled to provide timely care as Vietnam War veterans hit retirement age and have started using services more often, just as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have also created a new wave of patients. The VA is a regular target of ire for some veterans; some are angry about delays, others fume over rulings on monthly disability compensation; some see the department as a stand-in for a nation they feel has served them poorly after they came home from war.

Delays in care, as well as sometimes dizzying bureaucracy, have regularly boiled over into violence. Many veteran patients are “flagged” on their medical record and can’t visit hospitals without an escort by one of the department’s 4,000 police officers.

In 2014, Congress passed a law aimed at easing the wait for care by allowing veterans who face delays or long drives to use private doctors closer to their homes — and making the department pay the bill. That system too has been plagued by problems, but in recent years wait times have steadily dropped.

This article originally appeared in <a id="769a4050-309b-4343-a199-44f3fbb607ac" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/27/us/shooting-florida-veterans-affairs.html">The New York Times</a>.

Shooting at Florida veterans hospital injures employee

No one else was harmed during the shooting, which took place at the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center at about 6:20 p.m., said Mary Kay Rutan, a spokeswoman for the medical center’s network.

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Julia Jacobs, Matt Stevens and Dave Philipps

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Shooting at Florida veterans hospital injures employee