New VA clinic to open in Marianna mid-June

By Anne Spencer

Published: May 1, 2008

Veterans in need of medical care will soon be able to get their government-funded privilege closer to home.
Their long-awaited clinic is opening in Marianna in June, first seeing new enrollees, then taking on vets already in the system.
This week Congressman Allen Boyd, D-North Florida, announced the dedication and ribbon cutting. He plans to attend as the keynote speaker, along with representatives of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The event is set for Monday, May 12, at 10 a.m., but John Turner, the veterans service officer for Jackson County, cautions that this is not the opening date.
Boyd has been working with the VA since 2004 to get the community-based outpatient clinic in Jackson County. He brought the former VA Under Secretary for Health, Dr. Jonathan Perlin, to Marianna in 2006 so he could meet with local officials and talk about plans.
The VA announced in January that a clinic location had been found, at the site of a previous medical practice on U.S. Highway 90, just east of the State Road 71 intersection.
“I am proud of this new veterans’ clinic, but more than that, I am proud of the veterans it will serve,” Boyd said in a press release.
“Veterans in Jackson County and surrounding areas have traveled too far, too long, to get the healthcare they need and deserve, and this new clinic will ensure that North Florida’s veterans have more convenient access to proper medical care,” he said.
“With over 75,000 veterans in North Florida, our veterans need healthcare services closer to their homes, and this new facility will do just that,” he said.
The clinic is expected to have 4,000 veterans as patients when fully operating, according to the public affairs officer for the North Florida/ South Georgia Veterans Health System in Lake City, Mary Kay Hollingsworth.
The Jackson County clinic was included in the VA Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services decision in 2004. This was a strategic plan to address what had become clear – that there was a desperate need to reconsider where veterans had moved to or retired to, and their aging population.
Also speaking at the dedication will be Steve Young, deputy network director of the Veterans Affairs Sunshine Healthcare Network 8; Thomas A. Capello, director of the North Florida/ South Georgia Veterans Health System; Rear Adm. Leroy Collins Jr., U.S. Naval Reserve (Ret.), who is executive director of the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs; and Maureen Wilkes, acting associate director of the Lake City VA Medical Center.
“We are looking forward to the opening of the new clinic in Marianna,” Capello said. “We continue to recruit and train staff and will begin taking applications and scheduling patients for future appointments beginning June 5, and will open for full services mid-June.”
The remodeling of the former medical practice is finished, according to Hollingsworth,
“All of our renovation and remodeling are complete, and the VA clinic sign will be installed sometime next week,” she said. “We continue to receive furnishings, exam tables, that sort of thing.”
The clinic will have 24 employees, and the chief medical officer, administrative officer, enrollment coordinator and one nurse have been hired.
For the remainder, Hollingsworth said, “We’re at various stages of the process, and we hope to have it complete fairly soon.”
Hiring physicians is more time-consuming than that for other employees, because of the “credential-ing” process, Hollingsworth said.
She was asked about a traffic problem that nearby residents have. They say that a turn lane is needed on U.S. 90 leading to the driveway that will serve the medical clinic.
The driveway also leads to a subdivision and residents say it’s dangerous when headed east and waiting to turn, because motorists behind them get impatient and pass on the right.
Hollingsworth said the VA is doing nothing about that for now.
“From our standpoint, we need to see how the traffic flows,” she said.
The Department of Transportation agrees a turn lane is needed, but maintains that because the driveway is private, it’s not the state’s responsibility.