Pensacola, Fl (September 16, 2008) - Veterans clinic officially opens at Corry Station
Center brings a variety of new services to the area
Rebekah Allen
rallen@pnj.com
The Joint Ambulatory Care Center, adjacent to Pensacola Naval Hospital, opened its doors to veterans and active military personnel Monday morning.
The grand opening was celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tours of the 200,000-square-foot facility for the military community, national officials and local residents.
"Finally seeing this building become a reality is evidence of a lot of hard work and a lot of hard-working people," said U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Chumuckla. "This is an honor they have earned."
The $55 million project, located on 25 acres of U.S. Navy land, will replace the current Pensacola Veterans Affairs outpatient and mental-health clinics. It also will offer services not previously available locally.
"Pensacola is a hotbed of retirees and veterans," said Coast Guard veteran Skip Dudevoire of Pensacola. "If you saw our old facility — it was a campout compared to this."
Previously, veteran care was spread out across Pensacola in three different locations that amounted to 60,000 square feet of leased space. The closest facility for many services was the veterans' hospital in Biloxi, Miss.
The new Pensacola clinic will offer primary, dental, vision and mental-health care in addition to rehabilitation services, a women's clinic and various other specialty clinics. It will not offer major surgery.
Dr. James Peake, U.S. secretary of Veterans Affairs, called it a "one-stop shop" for easy-access diagnosis.
"This keeps them from having to go to Biloxi or sometimes Houston for the services we can provide," Peake said. "We're doubling the number of health-care providers and making it convenient for them to seek effective doctors."
The center is a joint operation of the Department of Veteran Affairs and the Department of Defense and employs more than 300 people.
Nikki St. Amant, spokeswoman for the VA Gulf Coast Veterans Healthcare System, said this partnership is the "vision of the future" for military health care because it integrates retirees and veterans with active-duty military care.
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