To provide medical care for veterans in metropolitan New Orleans, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Louisiana State University (LSU) have taken a major step toward creating a shared, VA-LSU medical complex in downtown New Orleans.

Both VA and LSU operated hospitals in New Orleans that were destroyed last year by the floods spawned by Hurricane Katrina.

A recently released four-month study recommended construction of two hospitals - one operated by VA, the other by LSU -- joined by a "linking corridor" that would contain services used by both.