Veterans Affairs clinic in Lynchburg opens without a hitch

By Cynthia Pegram

Published: September 2, 2008

Things went smoothly at the new Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic in Lynchburg when the doors opened, as promised, on Tuesday.

“Everybody that’s come in that’s needed to be cared for has been seen,” said Gary Stewart, clinic administrator. “Right now it’s a total positive experience.”

Area veterans have long awaited the opening of a Lynchburg clinic. It expects to serve up to 6,300 veterans in Central Virginia, which has an estimated 14,000 veterans.

The clinic, at 1600 Lakeside Dr., has nearly 10,000 square feet of space and is designed as a primary-care facility.

It is easy to navigate, with an inner hallway that makes it possible to traverse the entire facility nonstop or step into offices and exam rooms on either side of the hall.

The building also is newly furnished, with Virginia-like landscape photographs decorating the walls and cheerful, comfortable chairs in the waiting area. In the exam room, the exam tables are designed to make it easy for people with impaired breathing or physical weakness to lie back or sit up.

The community-based outpatient clinics “are intended to provide basic medical and mental health care, “not emergency care, not surgery, not more complicated things,” said Dr. Thomas Eldridge, who directs the primary-care programs out of the VA Medical Center in Salem.

Most veterans pay little or nothing for routine care. If a patient opts to go to a Lynchburg specialist, the VA will collaborate with that doctor, but the patient is responsible for the bill.

The Lynchburg medical community has been welcoming, said Eldridge. “We have no conflict at all with them.”

“We only take care of veterans,” said Eldridge, “so we’re certainly not competing with the docs here for the non-veterans.”

The veterans now being seen at the clinic are considered “eligible” — that is, they already are enrolled in the VA system and have been assigned to the Lynchburg clinic and a provider. The clinic is not open to all veterans, but rather to those who are eligible.

However, those who are eligible aren’t required to come to the clinic, said Ann Benois, chief of voluntary services out of Salem.

“It’s their option. If they decide to stay with their primary care provider at Salem they are welcome to do that, but if it’s more convenient for them or if it makes a lot more sense, access-wise, they can request a transfer to come here.”

One of the advantages for the people who get care at the VA, she said, is the camaraderie.

“There are a lot of vets waiting in the waiting room, and veterans working in the clinic,” she said.

That means they have a special relationship with each other “which enables us to enhance our ability to give medical care.”

With several schools of nursing in the area plus a number of health-related career tracks in local colleges, it’s likely that someday the clinic will have affiliations with some of them.

“We would love to collaborate,” said Eldridge. “We don’t have anything now, but that’s something we’re used to doing and we value as being part of training programs for health care providers of the future.”

Benois also hopes to be able to draw on volunteers to drive the patient transport minivan roundtrip to the VA in Salem. Although the job is volunteer, she said, anyone who drives must meet certain

criteria.