VA Wiregrass Outpatient Clinic

VA Wiregrass Outpatient Clinic on Fort Rucker

Fort Rucker, AL -- Veterans in Alabama's Southeastern, "Wiregrass" Region saw their medical support double with the recent opening of Central Alabama Veteran's Health Care System's (CAVHCS) Wiregrass Outpatient Clinic, located in Lyster Army Health Clinic, Fort Rucker, Ala., and also learned that the expansion of services in their area will continue.

"Last August we promised veterans that we would get as many of them off the road to Montgomery and Tuskegee as possible by expanding services right here in the Wiregrass Region," said Ms. Shirley Bealer, CAVHCS Acting Director. "Today we're delivering on that promise. In fact, we're committed to even further expansion, because we've received approval for a $2.9 million Joint Incentive Fund (JIF) project to renovate additional spaces here in the Lyster Army Health Clinic."

The Joint Incentive Fund program has been an effective means of expediting CAVHCS responsiveness to the Wiregrass Region veteran community's expanding needs. "The Wiregrass Region is growing and our expansion efforts are designed to keep up with the veteran population in the entire region," said Dr. Robert Ratliff, Interim Director, Birmingham VA Medical Center-who is expected to return to his duties as CAVHCS Director following the ongoing process to hire a new Birmingham Director. "Our approach has been to expand our existing sharing agreement, which has been working very well, and access JIF funding. Together, we've been able to shorten what is usually at least a 24 to 36 month process."

The 2003 Defense Authorization Act required that DoD and VA establish a Joint Incentives Program, which in turn created a DoD-VA Health Care Sharing Incentive Fund," explained Col. Michael S. Kaminski, Commander, U.S. Army Aeromedical Center, Fort Rucker, Ala. "The intent of the program was to identify, fund and evaluate creative local, regional and national sharing incentives. The additional $2.9 million renovation project will result in expanded services to active duty soldiers as well as our veterans."

New Wiregrass Region veteran enrollees will be directed to enroll at the new Wiregrass Outpatient Clinic aboard Fort Rucker. Current enrollees from throughout the entire region will also have an opportunity to enroll in the new clinic as well starting Monday. All they have to do is visit the new clinic and fill out an available form to transfer enrollment.

One element of the CAVHCS service expansion that is of particular importance to veterans from the southern part of the Wiregrass Region's Dothan, Ala. area is the opening of a new contract to operate the existing Community Based Clinic in Dothan to prospective contract providers. "One of the three primary promises we make to all veterans is to expand while maintaining services," explained Bealer. "Today's opening, while simultaneously maintaining services in Dothan, allows us to deliver on that promise."

"We've been able to be responsive to Wiregrass veterans," added Ratliff, who spoke with hundreds of veterans in a Town Hall meeting in the Dothan Opera House last March. "Today's grand opening, as well as the upcoming continued expansion, is a direct result of a concerted effort to continually identify and resolve veteran needs."