Washington, D.C. -- Continuing its emphasis on broadening veterans' access to medical care, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced today plans for 30 new community-based outpatient clinics.
The 30 clinics are in addition to 42 community-based outpatient clinics announced earlier this year, reflecting the ongoing re-engineering of VA health care to make primary care more accessible to veterans and to meet increasing demand for outpatient care.
The Veterans Health Administration will continue its transformation to provide veterans with high-quality, accessible outpatient care with additional clinics later this year and next year. The outpatient emphasis reflects new trends in technology and gains in medical knowledge that have caused VA to look carefully for treatments that may be more appropriately provided on an outpatient basis. Last fiscal year, VA's inpatient workload decreased by a quarter-million admissions while outpatient visits were up by 6.6 million.
The increase in outpatient care extends VA's presence in the community closer to veterans geographically, with travel time reduced for veterans who previously may have come to a VA medical center for outpatient care or who may not have utilized VA health-care benefits in the past due to distance.
Some of the new clinics announced today will be located in existing space in the community to be leased by VA and staffed by VA health personnel, while others may provide services through a contract with an existing community service provider, such as a private group practice.
Today's clinic announcement continues a grassroots planning effort by VA's Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs) in partnership with local veterans, labor organizations, and Congressional interests to find the best balance of ways to provide health care.
