LANCASTER – Veterans Affairs officials and members of the community on Friday celebrated the grand opening of Lancaster’s new Community Based Outpatient Clinic.
According to officials from the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, the new 10,000 square-foot clinic, located at 340 East Avenue I, Suite 108, includes new features such as onsite mental healthcare services, an exclusive women’s waiting area and exam room, and a staff that will grow to three teams of providers.
When fully staffed, the Lancaster clinic will include six mental healthcare professionals and 18 primary care staff, according to Dave Holt, associate director for the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System.
“We’ll have psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers – all here committed to help our veterans in person,” Holt said at Friday’s ceremony. “For those of you who came to the clinic before, if you wanted to receive your mental healthcare, you had to do a Telehealth visit through a video monitor or drive down to Sepulveda or West LA.”
Telehealth is a means to connect veterans at local clinics in remote areas to a provider at a VA medical center. And the Lancaster CBOC’s staff will now include a Telehealth technician to help facilitate a veteran’s consultation and evaluation through these computer sessions.
The new facility also features services designed especially for women veterans, according to Holt.
“It has a women’s privacy zone, a women’s waiting room where female veterans can feel calm, less stressed, and more relaxed when they come to their clinic,” he said, noting that women veterans – particularly in the Antelope Valley area – represent the largest growing percentage of veterans coming out of the military today.
Holt credited STG International for its role in helping to create a better experience for women veterans at the new clinic.
Michelle Lee, president and CEO of STG International, a woman-owned business that provides healthcare staffing and management consultation to military treatment facilities, said it was her goal to work with the VA to create a “first-class clinic” for Antelope Valley veterans.
“We want to make sure that we provide our nation’s heroes with the best medical healthcare services,” she told a crowd of nearly 70 in attendance.
In fact, Lee encouraged veterans to provide feedback to the new clinic’s staff so that they could continue to improve their services – even if it’s something “you’re not too happy about … because we are all about doing things better when serving the local veterans community.”
Friday’s ceremony marked the grand opening of the Lancaster Community Based Outpatient Clinic, which opened in early March.
Veterans may contact the clinic at 661-729-8655 for additional information regarding its services.
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Gowchong says
Thanks from a Vietnam Veteran! Good job. Hopefully I will never need to use the services of this brand new clinic, but it’s good to know it is there.