Veterans News Flash
VA Expands Service by
Opening 25 New Clinics

WASHINGTON, June 23, 2006 -To provide world-class health care closer to where more veterans live, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs today announced plans to open 25 new community-based clinics in 17 states and American Somoa.

“VA has established itself as one of the top health care organizations in the country,” said the Honorable R. James Nicholson, Secretary of Veterans Affairs. “By putting health care facilities in more communities, we’re enhancing veterans’ access to VA’s world-class health care.”

With 156 hospitals and more than 700 community-based clinics, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) operates the largest integrated health care system in the country. VA’s health care budget of nearly $30 billion this year will provide health care to about 5.4 million people during nearly 600,000 hospitalizations and 55 million outpatient visits.

“Community-based medicine enhances preventative care, allows for closer doctor-patient relationships and makes it easier for follow-up for people with chronic problems,” said Dr. Jonathan B. Perlin, VA’s Under Secretary for Health.

The new facilities, called community-based outpatient clinics, or CBOCs, will start becoming operational this year. Local VA officials will keep communities and their veterans informed of milestones in the creation of the new CBOCs.

A list of the new community clinics follows:

VA’s Proposed Sites for New Outpatient Clinics

Alabama -- Bessemer
American Samoa
Arizona – Miami-Globe, northwest Tucson, southeast Tucson
California – S. Orange County
Delaware – Dover
Georgia – Athens
Idaho – Canyon County
Iowa – Spirit Lake
Kentucky – Hazard, Florence
Minnesota – Bemidji
Nebraska -- Holdrege
Nevada -- Fallon
North Carolina – Franklin, Hamlet, Hickory
Ohio – Cambridge, Newark
Tennessee – Hamblen
Texas -- Conroe
Virginia – Lynchburg, Norfolk
Wisconsin – Rice Lake

SOURCE: VNIS

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