Completing a major construction project and continuing to deliver high-quality care at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System are among the priorities for the system's new director.

Terry Gerigk Wolf said she was "thrilled and honored" to direct VA Pittsburgh, noting its "great reputation as a flagship tertiary care" facility. Officials announced her appointment yesterday.

One priority for the next five years will be to minimize disruption as VA Pittsburgh completes a $200 million building project, said Mrs. Wolf, an experienced VA administrator who comes to the health system from the Lebanon VA Medical Center in Lebanon County.

VA Pittsburgh includes three divisions -- a hospital in Oakland, the Heinz division in O'Hara and the Highland Drive division in East Liberty -- as well as five community-based outpatient clinics. Operations at Highland Drive eventually will be consolidated at the Oakland and O'Hara sites.

As change occurs, "the challenge will be to maintain the high quality of service our veterans expect," she said.

Problems reported at other veterans health facilities and at Walter Reed Army Medical Center have raised concerns that some veterans, in Pittsburgh or elsewhere, may not get timely or appropriate care. But Mrs. Wolf, like other local VA officials, emphasized that resources are available to provide prompt treatment.

She also said efforts are under way to keep computerized patient information secure. National VA officials announced changes last year after computer data containing information about veterans in the Pittsburgh area and elsewhere disappeared.

Mrs. Wolf also said she was enthusiastic about continuing VA Pittsburgh's leadership role in helping other veterans' hospitals eliminate an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria known as MRSA.

Before becoming director of the Lebanon center in October 2004, Mrs. Wolf served three years as associate director of VA Pittsburgh. In that role, she also served as acting director of the Butler VA Medical Center.

Mrs. Wolf, 47, has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Davis. She worked in health care device manufacturing until 1987, when she began work for the VA Palo Alto Healthcare System in California as a biomedical engineer.

In 1991, she moved to VA's central office in Washington, D.C., where she worked in facilities engineering and operations in the Office of the Undersecretary for Health. In 1996, she moved to Pittsburgh as chief operating officer for a network of VA facilities in Pennsylvania and other states.

At VA Pittsburgh, Mrs. Wolf succeeds Michael Moreland, who was named in December to head a group of VA medical centers and clinics throughout Pennsylvania and Delaware and in parts of West Virginia, New Jersey, Ohio and New York.