Leaders from the El Paso VA Health Care System opened the Westside Community Based Outreach Clinic July 31 during a ribbon-cutting ceremony in west El Paso, Texas. Pictured left to right: Dr. David Cotchery, Acting El Paso VA Medical Center Chief of Staff; Blanca Aragon, Nurse Executive; Tom Foster, representing Elevation Companies; Kraig White, Westside Community Based Outpatient Clinic Manager; Mike Amaral, El Paso VA Medical Center Director; Dr. Jamie Park, El Paso VA Medical Center Associate Director.
El Paso VA opens clinic in West El Paso, welcomes back veterans
By Michelle L. Gordon, USAG Fort Bliss Public Affairs Office
The nearly 15,000 square-foot facility, located in the Northwest Corporate Center Industrial Park, is expected to provide clinical care for approximately 5,000 veterans annually and is the first primary care expansion for the Sun City VA in more than 10 years.
“This is the first time we have been able to invite veterans back after sending them out to community providers,” said Michael Amaral, director of the El Paso VA Health Care System. “We just didn’t have the capacity. Space has been a major challenge in the expansion of medical services and increasing access to health care for our veterans.”
In addition to primary care, the clinic will also provide general mental health and lab services. It will include an audiology booth, and specialty physicians will rotate through a few times a week providing services such as podiatry and orthopedics.
Due to the coronavirus, patients will be seen at the new clinic by appointment only or through virtual care, unless the provider makes a clinical decision to see a patient in person. As cases of the virus decline, Amaral said they will conduct more face-to-face appointments.
Additional VA expansions are planned; the first will be a community-based clinic in northeast El Paso, which Amaral expects to open in about 90 days. After that, he is looking at possibly opening one in Horizon City.
“We didn’t strategically plan 10 years ago for the growth happening today,” he said. “So we are playing catch up. El Paso is the fifth-largest projected growth market for veterans in the country and there are very good reasons why -- we have Fort Bliss, we have Holloman Air Force Base, we have White Sands, and El Paso is fantastic. People come here, see how nice it is and they stay, so we have to position for the future to be able to take care of those patients.”