Secretary Nicholson: Outreach Clinic Will Improve Rural Veterans’ Access to Care
WASHINGTON – Veterans in eastern Colorado and western Kansas will have improved access to medical care from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), thanks to VA’s decision to open a new outreach clinic in the Yuma/Burlington/Goodland area of Colorado and Kansas.
“I’m always happy to announce the opening of new VA clinics,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson. “By putting health care outpatient facilities in rural communities, we’re enhancing veterans’ access to VA’s world-class health care. The clinic will help ensure these veterans receive the health care they have earned through their service and sacrifices in defense of our nation.”
The new clinic will provide basic primary care and mental health services, including medical evaluations and the diagnosis and treatment of conditions that do not require hospitalization or specialty care. The clinic will be open five half-days a week, with a registered nurse onsite during operating hours. Telemedicine (the use of telecommunications technology to provide health care from distant locations) will link the clinic with additional services at other VA clinics and hospitals.
Currently, the 4,000 veterans VA serves in the nine-county area where the new clinic will open are not within an hour’s driving distance of a location in which VA health care is provided. Because 44 percent of the area’s population is 65 or older, it is difficult for many area residents to visit a distant VA facility for care, especially during the winter months.
VA expects that the clinic will open within the next few months. VA operates two medical centers and 11 community-based outpatient clinics in Colorado.
