Veterans Clinic Opens to Local Fanfare
(center) VA Butler Healthcare VISN 4 Deputy Director Carla Sivek and LPN Connie Cloak cut the ceremonial ribbon with other VA Butler and Valor Healthcare officials to open the East Franklin Township outpatient clinic yesterday morning. The clinic relocated from the second-floor of the Klingensmith Healthcare building in Ford City to a portion of the former-Foodland grocery store.
by Jonathan Weaver
Armstrong County’s outpatient clinic specifically for military veterans ceremoniously opened yesterday morning in East Franklin Township.
Formerly on the second floor of the Klingensmith Pharmacy building on Ford Street in Ford City, the clinic officially opened in the new space nearly three times as large September 17, but welcomed officials from the VA Butler main campus for a ribbon cutting yesterday.
Along with additional healthcare features available at the new site with new vendor Valor Healthcare, VA Butler Outpatient Clinic Manager Tim Florian hoped the facility becomes more than just a medical office, but also a place where veterans can socialize together over a cup of coffee.
“This is a great example of coordination from a lot of different groups who are all out to improve the health of veterans – all working for different chains of command, all with slightly-different missions, but all to help the veteran.”
Concentra also operates three Pittsburgh-area outpatient clinics, and will also operate the new Clarion and Cranberry facilities when they open in the next two weeks.
All three facilities were at the end of their respective five-year contract periods. ACMH Hospital operated the Ford City location for the past five years.
“We gave vendors the option to bid for all three, two or one (location) – we did not want to tie our hands,” Florian said. “(Valor Healthcare) provided a very comprehensive proposal to run all three (clinics), which give us a great economy of scale of effort and continuity of care. Things are kind-of going to operate the same in Armstrong as they are at Clarion and Cranberry - similar leadership structure.”
With the three new contracts, Valor Healthcare - a subsidiary of Concentra, a national health care company based in Addison, Texas - now operates 35 outpatient clinics across the country.
The new facility officially opened September 17, and is open Monday through Friday.
Valor Healthcare Chief Operations Officer/Chief Medical Officer Dr. Scott Wise said the entire bidding, contracting and opening process could take up to 18 months, but flew in from Dallas for the best part.
“(Thursday) was the day that was the most fun, though,” Dr. Wise said. “The thing that is the most fun for me is when veterans walk into a facility like this and say, ‘Woah – this is for us?!’
This facility looks as nice as or nicer than any private physician’s office in the country, and that’s what the veterans deserve.”
Both a full-time and part-time physician will work with four primary care teams at the new facility to treat a greater number of patients regularly. The facility is open weekdays from 8AM-4:30PM.
Dr. Wise went through residency in medicine while serving with the U.S. Army. Most of his time was spent at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and he said many other employees are military veterans and therefore “invested.”
Florian, a Marine Corps veteran, praised the company for getting the clinic up and running within 90 days.
Only one staff member from the Ford City site relocated – Tele-Health Licensed Practical Nurse Connie Cloak.
“We have a whole new crew of people – everybody’s anxious to learn and anxious to help our vets,” Cloak said.
Cloak, of Templeton, has worked at the veterans’ clinic since 2005 and said the veterans she aids have become like part of her family.
And Cloak’s immediate family already includes veterans, including her son, Steven, - a U.S. Army veteran who was discharged two years ago after serving for six-and-a-half years following his Lenape Tech and West Shamokin High graduation in 2007.
Father, Raymond Blair, also served in the U.S. Army.
Cloak said her family’s medical history also helped her decide to work in the VA clinic.
“They have served our country, and they deserve good medical care,” Cloak said. “If it wasn’t for them, where would we be today?
County Veterans Affairs Director Chuck Righi recognized many of the veterans during the ribbon cutting ceremony and also praised the new opportunity.
“I couldn’t be any prouder if I tried,” Righi said.
The process to solicit vendors began last September when five-year contracts were due to expire. Florian and other VA Butler officials met with veterans at the Pennsylvania National Guard Armory in Manor Township in October to explain the contracting process.
VA Butler services about 1,500 veterans – of which have served from World War II through Afghanistan and Iraq – in Armstrong County.
Local News | jweaver September 25, 2015
By Snarf, September 25, 2015 @ 7:41 AM
You know, I all for this for our veterans, but why must it be run by an out of state company? My last job (paid with taxpayer funds) the base of operations was also outsourced out of state.