The VA OKC Healthcare System recently opened its newest VA clinic in northwest Oklahoma City.
This new clinic will be where the Women’s Health Clinic and specialty care clinics are relocating from the VA Medical Center.
The North Portland VA Clinic will consist of two separate buildings and will cover a total of 25,604 square feet, said Wade Vlosich, Director of the Oklahoma City HealthCare System. The facilities will employ 75 staff members.
Building 5, located at 3625 NW 56th Street, will house the Women’s Health Clinic, Imaging, and Lab services. This relocation will provide the women’s Veteran population with a facility outside of the VA Medical Center.
This move will offer an environment for female Veterans who may feel uncomfortable using the medical center due to past trauma.
Building 3, located at 3613 NW 56th Street, will house Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Orthopedics, Podiatry, Urology, Optometry, Ophthalmology, and the Optical Shop.
“We’re really excited about this opportunity,” Vlosich said. “It started about four years ago with the growing female population here in Oklahoma. Right now, we have about 10,000 female veterans and that continues to rise every year. We’re netting about 400 female veterans every year. This year alone we’ve seen about 80,000 veterans, so almost 12%, 13% of our total population is female veterans. As we expand the services, we wanted to get a female specific clinic. We are proud of all that we’ve done to bring this to our female veterans.”
Vlosich led tours of the two buildings during a ribbon cutting ceremony Sept. 30.
“Over here will be the check-in (in Building 5),” he said. “We’ll have two entrances, one for females and then the other side is a commingled area where it’ll be for men and women because we do have some men that need mammograms. We will still have every service. The only thing that will be different is that the female specific primary care teams will be here. All our primary care teams will have females in each one of the sites.”
Vlosich said a survey was done about five years ago, and one the top requests was a one-stop shop for female veterans.
“One of the things they said they wanted was a one-stop shop, so when they come in, they can get pelvic floor, they can get GYN, they can get mammography, bone density,” he said.
“What they’re going to be working on when you come in to say for a female exam, they will have a screening for all of these set up for one day. If you need to come in and get bone density mammography, all of that can be done in one day so you don’t have to come out multiple times.”
Vlosich said the North Portland clinics will also include a VA Express Care (same day walk-in) Clinic, including a VA-specific Ortho Express clinic.
“We’re opening up two VA-specific Ortho express clinics because we have so many same day ortho needs that we’ll have urgent, like an express same day ortho clinic,” he said. “You don’t have to go to primary care or anybody, you just walk in, and they can get your x-rays and get all that stuff done here.”
The VA is the world’s largest and most comprehensive provider of sensory aides and prosthetic devices. Veterans enrolled in the VA health care system and referred by a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician can receive a full range of services and equipment like:
• Artificial limbs and surgical implants, including artificial joints and pacemakers
• Wheelchairs and other medical devices
• Aids for Veterans who are blind, have low vision, or are hearing impaired
• Adaptive equipment and modifications to make your vehicle or home more accessible
• Other devices and services to help increase your mobility, dignity, and independence
• Clothing allowance for Veterans with devices that damage their clothing
Vlosich said the North Portland clinics will have an orthotic space.
“We’ll have both prosthetics,” he said. “Instead of going up to the main campus and picking up prosthetic devices, you can come in here. There is a big ortho PT gym here and then an
OT that will work in this space. This is part of just expanding those services overall.”
Vlosich said the North Portland VA will be secure.
“There are some FBI and Homeland Security people in the building, so we’ve got a lot of that,” he said. “We do have a VA police area. We have an armory as well.” •
story by Van Mitchell, staff writer
