INDIANA -- Indiana County Commissioners Chairman Rod Ruddock expressed his "personal excitement and professional excitement"?for the proposed veterans' outpatient clinic that recently was announced for Indiana County.
"That's something that has been very important to this team of commissioners, and for the last eight years, I have tried to make this thing a reality,"?Ruddock said at Wednesday's regular meeting of the commissioners.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced July 20 that it plans to open 13 new community-based outpatient clinics in nine states. Among those 13 clinics will be two new facilities for Pennsylvania, in Indiana and Huntingdon counties.
Andrea Young, public affairs officer for the James E. Van Zandt VA Medical Center in Altoona, said there have no been details released on where the clinic will be located or when it might open, although she believes the desired time frame would be to have the clinic operational 18 months from now.
The next step, she said, will be a request for proposals and seeking bids for the design and construction of the clinic.
"We're a federal government agency and we have a very formal contracting process,"?she noted.
Young said the Altoona VA center has three satellite clinics, in DuBois, Johnstown and State College, which are supported and staffed by the medical center.
Currently, veterans from Indiana County must travel a fair distance to any of these clinics, with other options in Greensburg and Pittsburgh.
If they rely on the local VFW's transportation services for veterans in order to get to their VA?medical appointments, several veterans could be signed up to go in any given day. That means those who have an appointment scheduled earlier in the day would have to wait for the other veterans to finish with their appointments before making their way back home.
It's even worse for younger veterans who would have to lose a day of work in order to make an appointment.
"So we think it's better that we have a clinic here in Indiana County where they can go to and get that immediate attention they need,"?Ruddock said, noting that Indiana County has a veteran population of about 7,500.
"We have a large number of veterans who need to be serviced,"?he said.
The Indiana County VA clinic would likely offer the same services as other satellite clinics, Young noted, including primary care services, a medical care team of a doctor and/or nurse practitioner, physician's assistant, nursing LPN and administrative staff. Other possible services would be the availability of social workers and counselors, and of lab work.
She said some clinics are starting to offer speciality care services such as optometry and podiatry.
Ruddock said he's spoken with Steve Wolfe, CEO of Indiana Regional Medical Center, about IRMC's possible involvement in the clinic.
"We had worked with IRMC over the last four or five years and he said he would make every effort to support the clinic's concept and make it workable under his oversight,"?Ruddock said.
He noted that they had at one point considered the IRMC at Chestnut Ridge satellite as a possible location due to its proximity to several major highways.
Contracting with a major health care provider such as IRMC is definitely an option for the clinic, Young said.
"There are other medical centers and health care systems that have contracted clinics, where a health care provider would contract to offer the service within their facility, using their own staff,"?Young explained. "That's an option out there, but at this point, we just have approval to open an outpatient clinic."
"And nothing is written in stone,"?she added. "But we are just thrilled it's approved because we've had this proposal out there for years, wanting to have a clinic in Indiana County."
Ruddock, too, is happy with the decision after years of proposing that a clinic be built in the county.
He said he's received several calls from local politicians thanking the commissioners for their efforts.
Commissioner Patricia Evanko applauded Ruddock's personal efforts in securing a clinic for Indiana County.
"It's good news for the veterans,"?Ruddock said. "There is no better effort on our part than to make sure our veterans are taken care of."
