WASHINGTON – To expand the capacity of its outpatient clinic in Crown Point, Ind., the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced plans to replace the facility with a much larger clinic that the government will lease from a builder.
“VA is dedicated to providing the best in health care to the men and women who have served our nation in uniform,” said Dr. James B. Peake, Secretary of Veterans Affairs. “Community-based medicine makes preventive care easier for patients and permits easier follow-up with chronic health problems.”
The department has received bids from contractors to develop a 55,000-square-foot structure covering about nine acres. The winning contractor will own the new building and lease it to VA to operate. The site chosen at 93rd Avenue and Madison Street is directly behind the existing 40,000-square-foot clinic, which VA has also leased. VA expects to award a contract by early 2009.
Crown Point’s Adam Benjamin, Jr. VA Outpatient Clinic is part of the VA Chicago Health Care System and is located 55 miles southeast of Chicago. The clinic has 119 full-time staff members.
In fiscal year 2007, it received more than 100,000 outpatient visits from approximately 72,750 veterans living in northwest Indiana and surrounding areas. The visits were for both primary and specialty care. Many northwest Indiana veterans also receive specialty outpatient and inpatient care at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago.
