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Outpatient clinic in Rutherfordton to be an asset for local veterans

By Mike Conley | The McDowell News

Published: June 16, 2009

The Department of Veterans Affairs will open a new community-based outpatient clinic in Rutherford County. And the veterans affairs officer for McDowell said this new clinic would help local veterans, particularly those living in the southern part of the county.
Officials with the VA and the Charles George VA Medical Center in Asheville announced Tuesday that a site has been selected for the establishment of a community-based outpatient clinic (CBOC) in Rutherford County.
The clinic will be located at 374 Charlotte Road in Rutherfordton in the Rutherford Square Shopping Center. An agreement has been reached for VA to lease space within the mall where a CVS Pharmacy was previously located. When completed, the facility will provide clinic space of approximately 6,500 square feet.
The clinic will provide primary care and general mental health services to veterans from Rutherford, Cleveland and Polk counties. The VA estimates that about 17,000 veterans reside in this service area. It is estimated approximately 3,600 veterans may seek care at the Rutherford County Clinic.
Alan Mainer, the veterans services officer for McDowell, said it could also help those from McDowell. If a veteran lives in Dysartsville, Glenwood or Vein Mountain, it would make sense to drive to Rutherfordton instead of Asheville for their care.
"If they just need to have a physical or to have a wound change," said Mainer. "It all depends on what's wrong with them."
Those veterans with more serious problems would probably go to the medical center in Asheville, he added.
The new clinic is scheduled to be operational by the fall. Management and staffing of the Rutherford County clinic will be the responsibility of the Charles George VA Medical Center.
"We are excited about the opportunity to take the next step in establishing outpatient services in Rutherford County to improve access to health care for our veterans residing in southwestern North Carolina," said Daniel F. Hoffmann, director of the VA's Mid-Atlantic Healthcare Network.
Veterans currently enrolled at the medical center in Asheville who live in close proximity to the Rutherford County clinic will be given priority for care at the new facility. The VAMC will also review its list of veterans currently enrolled that may benefit from assignment as a patient at the clinic. The medical center will inform those veterans of that option.
Although the new clinic is intended for veterans from Rutherford, Cleveland and Polk, those veterans from southern McDowell would be treated there too, said Mainer.
The Charles George VA Medical Center, located in Asheville's Oteen community, is one of eight major facilities within the Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN 6. In 2008, this network provided care to approximately 318,000 veterans across North Carolina, Virginia and parts of West Virginia.
The medical center currently operates one other outpatient clinic in Franklin, located approximately one and one-half hours west of the medical center. The Franklin clinic opened in August 2008.