MOUNT VERNON — The permanent location of a veterans outpatient clinic will be near Skagit Valley Hospital, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen announced Wednesday.
The Northwest Washington VA Puget Sound Community Based Outpatient Clinic will take two floors of the Mount Vernon Medical Building at 307 South 13th St., which should be open and operating by late spring 2009.
An estimated 6,500 veterans yearly will utilize outpatient primary care along with mental health, audiology, optometry and dental services at the facility. Veterans previously drove one to two hours from Skagit and surrounding counties to Seattle for treatment.
“It was a bridge too far for many,” Murray, D-Wash., said to a crowd of veterans, Veterans Affairs administrators and local health care providers. “They should not have been denied service mainly because the facility was too far away. Veterans will have access to doctors, nurses and staff who know them, and know them well.”
Larsen, D-Wash., said veterans have pushed for such facilities for years, and he was happy to see medical care move within reach of those who need it.
“It is past time for primary health care to get closer to our veterans,” he said.
A temporary clinic has been operating out of United General Hospital in Sedro-Woolley.
Mount Vernon Mayor Bud Norris said the facility will reach out and thanks veterans for their service.
“This practice here is one way of putting our efforts forward and letting our veterans know how much we love them and how much we appreciate what they do,” he said.
Stan Johnson, a health care director for Veterans Affairs, said the facility would be the first in the area to offer mental health, audiology, optometry and dental care together.
Lacy Sweigart, 29, said her father would have benefited from such a facility when he returned from Vietnam, where he served for the Army Corps of Engineers.
Her 59-year-old father suffers from liver cirrhosis, hepatitis C and diabetes, which Sweigart said are all related to his time in the military. She blames much of it on alcoholism and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I wholeheartedly believe he suffers from PTSD,” she said.
But her father ignored recommendations to visit a psychologist, and rarely, if ever, spoke about his time overseas.
“It was so not acceptable to show any kind of weakness,” Sweigart said.
Sweigert said her father turns 60 this fall, but she’s not confident he’ll live until then. If he had access to a veteran-focused facility with mental health, she thinks he might have fared better.
“If there were more places like this when my father came home from Vietnam, his life would probably be different,” she said.
The facility will take the second and third floors of the building across 13th Street from Skagit Valley Hospital. It will cost $1.2 million to adapt the space for the clinic, with a yearly lease of $528,000.
Veterans Affairs received six bids for the location and signed the lease for this space at the end of June.
Hospital spokeswoman Kari Ranton said the two facilities do not have a direct relationship yet, but have informally discussed combining certain programs in the future.
• Aaron Burkhalter can be reached at 360-416-2141 or .
Veterans Clinic location announced
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