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October 20, 2006

Veterans turn out for VA clinic open house

By Matt Snyder

HERMITAGE — The doors to the Veterans Affairs Mercer County Outpatient Clinic in Hermitage have been open since Oct. 2. But Friday was the ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house.

Crowded outside the building in The Arbors, Suite 110, 295 N. Kerrwood Drive, on a soggy and misted morning, veterans and others attending watched as the Jamestown Color Guard presented the flags, which was followed by a prayer, the pledge of allegiance, and the national anthem.

“It’s a real nice day for veterans,” said Michael Moreland, director of Veterans Affairs, Pittsburgh. “Good to open the clinic and get things rolling forward.”

Veterans lined up to be registered at the clinic and also received flu shots in the four primary-care exam rooms.

The four rooms, a behavioral health program, and the equipment to eventually do physical therapy are among some of the features, said Ginny Yelland, the administrative assistant to the chief of staff.

There are 1,200 veterans registered with the clinic, and Yelland expected to see that increase to 2,000.

“It’s growing daily,” she said. “That’s why it’s nice we got a bigger space.”

The clinic will serve patients from the now-closed, two-day-a-week Farrell clinic, as well as veterans from all over Mercer County who used to travel to Butler’s VA medical center.

World War II veteran Quen Gosser, Greenville, likes the clinic’s location. “All these year’s I’ve been going to Butler,” he said.

“And Butler was good,” he noted, adding he hopes Mercer County can match that level of service. He said he thinks it will.

Larry Polley, Franklin, a Vietnam veteran who has been using the health clinic system since the 1990s, is pleased with the new location and not having to drive to Butler for treatment.

An interesting feature is the clinic’s home-based preventive-care program, which focuses on health maintenance and preventative medicine, said Supervisor of Community Services Nancy Kummer.

Kummer said the home-based program is dedicated to keeping patients in their homes as long as possible, with a doctor, pharmacist, nurse, physical therapist, dietitian, and social worker at their disposal.

Certain aspects of a patients’ health are self-monitored and sent in via phone using equipment that gauges weight, blood pressure, and pulse-oxygen, Kummer said.

Patients can also manually enter their blood sugar and the time they took that reading. Once the readings arrive at the hospital, Care Coordinator Linda Werner, a registered nurse, checks them.

“It’s not an emergency reporting system,” Werner said, “It’s a way to monitor chronic conditions.”

Werner said doctors can use the readings to make treatment decisions.

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