Veteran Advocates Welcome Plan For Outpatient Services Center [The Fayetteville Observer, N.C.]

May 18--Veterans advocates are welcoming the VA Medical Center's plan for a 250,000-square-foot building to house outpatient services.

"It's long overdue," said Don Talbot, a Vietnam War veteran and longtime advocate.

Veterans Affairs officials hope the new Health Care Center, planned for Old Raeford Road, will ease the stress put on the medical center's aging Ramsey Street campus by the continued rise in the number of veterans it serves.

Those numbers, which have increased 16 percent since 2008, are expected to keep rising over the next decade and beyond.

Between Oct. 1, 2010, and Sept. 30, 2011, 42,245 patients used the Fayetteville VA Medical Center. Between Oct. 1, 2011, and March 30, that number had grown to 44,264 patients.

The VA uses future enrollees to project growth in patients. An enrollee is a veteran who has signed up with the VA system for medical care but may not have been a patient in a given year.

Right now, about 90,000 veterans are enrolled with the Fayetteville VA Medical network. That number is expected to grow to 107,933 by 2025.

Jim Galkowski, the medical center's associate director, said the growth has been partially driven by the increasing number of women now serving in the military and by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"But most of our population is still going to be the older veteran who served in Korea or Vietnam," he said. "They are the ones who are getting older, and they may no longer have health insurance because of retirement or because of the cost. They are choosing to use the VA to meet their health needs."

The Fayetteville VA serves veterans in 21 counties, 19 in eastern North Carolina and two in South Carolina.

Construction on the $120 million facility is expected to begin before the end of the year. Galkowski said he expects the building to open in 2015.

The facility will be built on a 35-acre tract that is between Raeford and Old Raeford roads in western Cumberland County, about 12 miles from the main campus. The property is owned by William J. Gillis.

Galkowski said Gillis will eventually sell the property to a developer, who will lease it to the government in 20- year increments. Preliminary estimates put the lease cost at $7 million per year.

The project is out for bid to developers, Galkowski said, and one will be chosen by September.

Galkowski said the property cannot be accessed from Raeford Road, but the VA hopes to have that access by the time the building is complete.

Roughly 630 employees now working for the VA will be relocated to the Health Care Center. The number of additional jobs required has not been determined.

The new building will house the VA's 16 primary care and 20 special care clinics. The idea is to allow veterans to take care of all their outpatient needs in one place.

Galkowski said outpatient mental health services will be at the new building. Other services that will be offered include audiology, radiology, laboratory, eye care, specialty medicine and surgery programs. There will also be a pharmacy and social workers at the facility.

Moving the outpatient services will free space at the main campus to re-establish the facility as an in-patient hospital instead of a catch-all facility.

Rooms in the 1930s-era medical center will be renovated to include private baths, Galkowski said. The electrical grid will be updated, as will the air-conditioning system.

The extra space will allow the VA to offer more complex orthopedic and urological surgeries that haven't previously been offered, he said.

Talbot, who in the past has been an outspoken critic of the VA, said the new building and some improvements at the main campus have changed his opinion of the hospital.

"The quality is improving," he said. " I can't speak evil about it any more, although six or seven years ago I was speaking very evil of it."

Thomas Person Sr., commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6018 in Fayetteville, agreed that the outpatient clinics are needed.

Person, 50, said he uses the VA about twice a year for checkups but uses medical services outside the VA system, as well, to avoid long waits.

"Right now, anything that can offset having to drive to the VA hospital is an improvement," he said.

Staff writer Todd Leskanic can be reached at leskanict@fayobserver.com or 486-3511.

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