For the Department of Veterans Affairs, it was a day to boast of what has been accomplished and dream of what $700 million could bring.

The VA threw open the doors of its aging Denver hospital Tuesday and showed that advanced medical care is being delivered here. In its first guided “open house” tour, the Denver facility provided a glimpse of its many services to veterans.

Hospital officials showed how a doctor in Denver can use telehealth equipment to diagnose an ear infection or listen to a patient’s heartbeat in Pueblo. In a tiny office, specialists connect with doctors throughout the Rocky Mountains and the Midwest to give talks and advice on individual cases.

The tour was held late in the afternoon, after daily appointments, and avoided inpatient floors, at once protecting privacy and giving an eerie impression of a hospital without patients.

Among the staff, the main complaint about the 65-year-old hospital is a shortage of clinic space and an inability to offer spinal cord surgery or a rehabilitation program for the blind.

Doctors and nurses spoke enthusiastically of their work, taking pride that their patients are veterans.

Dr. Jane Reusch, a diabetes specialist, has worked at the Denver VA hospital since 1986, and said, “I would never practice anywhere else.”

At the same time, she acknowledges that finding clinic space in the existing hospital can be a challenge.

“Right now, everything in this hospital that can see a patient is being used,” she said. “Sometimes you’re all cattywampus trying to look at the patient and the family member and the computer.”

Carolyn Adams, the interim hospital director, agrees. “We need more space,” she said. “We need more state-of-the-art equipment.”

She said the new veterans’ hospital in Aurora would replace multi-patient rooms with mostly private rooms and offer more female accomodations to reflect the growing numbers of women veterans.

The problem is that project began with a $328 million estimate to Congress and quickly grew to an estimated $1.7 billion. The Aurora hospital still needs about $700 million to open its doors, plus equipment and furniture costs.

Virginia Gray, the Denver hospital’s congressional liaison, pointed out that it, too, was considered state-of-the-art when it was built.

A retired master sergeant, she remembers when having only three patients to a room was a luxury.

David Olinger: 303-954-1498, dolinger@denverpost.com or twitter.com/dolingerdp