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New VA facility in West Side El Paso opens to increase health care access for veterans

El Paso Times - 8/8/2020

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The El Paso Veterans Affairs Health Care System's new facility on the city's West Side aims to increase health care access for veterans.

The new community-based outpatient center at 1870 Northwestern Drive, the first significant expansion of the system's primary care capacity in nearly a decade, officially opened Monday. Construction on the $2.3 million facility began in August 2019. The facility is also intended to reduce crowds and wait times at the El Paso VA's main facility on Piedras Street.

The new facility's Clinic Manager Kraig White is a Navy veteran who lives in the area and a longtime VA Health Care System patient. He also works at the new facility. White said he used to have to drive around 25 miles to receive care at the main facility, but now it takes only a few minutes.

"Just to be able to have a facility close to home, where I feel like it's in my community," he said, "it makes a big difference."

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The facility began operating at 50% staff capacity Monday, including two primary care teams, and will be available for in-person meetings with patients next week.

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The facility opened during "phase zero" of the VA's COVID-19 reopening plan, under which patients will have in-person appointments with medical staff only when it is deemed medically necessary. The rest of the appointments will be conducted remotely.

Phase 1 of the plan, which will be implemented after data shows a seven-day decline in local COVID-19 cases, will allow facilities to conduct in-person appointments at 25% patient capacity.

The new center is expected to create 61 new jobs, with priority given to job applicants who are military veterans.

White stressed the importance of expanding the VA Health Care System in El Paso, where veterans represent a larger share of the population than on the state and national levels. Veterans account for 8.2% of El Paso residents over 18, compared to 7.2% in Texas as a whole.

At the 23-year-old Piedras Street center, White said, "we have no more room to grow."

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El Paso VA Public Affairs Officer Ginette Bocanegra said the new center will allow the VA Health Care System to care for more veterans at its own facilities.

"We were having to send a lot of patients to the community providers, because our goal is to have them not wait beyond 30 days from the day they request an appointment," she said. "So with this [center], we get to welcome veterans back into our own VA clinics."

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: New VA facility in West Side El Paso opens to increase health care access for veterans

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