Local leaders of veterans organizations comment on recent opening of new VA Outpatient Clinic in Decorah

The Iowa City Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System conducted a ribbon-cutting ceremony followed by an open house for a new VA Outpatient Clinic in Decorah March 22. The new clinic is located at 915 Short Street in Decorah, the location of the former Walmart building, and will provide primary care services that veterans in the local area had to previously drive two-plus hours to receive in Iowa City.
Among those primary care services will be chronic disease management, blood drawing, care coordination home telehealth, diabetic education, group and individual nutritional sessions, weight loss/management classes, and mental health services. Those primary services at the new outpatient clinic may not completely eliminate the need for area veterans to travel to Iowa City for further necessary care, but will certainly cut down on the travel time for many initial health visits and primary care issues.
"The new VA Outpatient Clinic is a very important asset to the veterans of Allamakee County, as well as surrounding counties, as it drops the six-hour round-trip ride off of their day that they would have taken to Iowa City, not to mention wait time in Iowa City that could be a few or more hours itself," states Heather Homewood, Director of Allamakee County Veterans Affairs. "The majority of time these folks see around a 12-hour day just for a doctor appointment. There will be lab, x-ray, a small pharmacy, some mental health, primary care and weight loss programs. There may be more services added at a later time."
In addition to the services being provided, Homewood is also pleased with the fact that many of the clinic's initial staff members are from the local area, increasing the comfort and familiarity local veterans will have with the clinic's care providers. "The doctor is coming from Gundersen Lutheran in Prairie du Chien, WI and her specialty is internal medicine. The clinic coordinator is a registered nurse from New Albin, and the mental health nurse coordinator and one receptionist are also local, so that is very nice to see. The facility is very nice and we are very pleased with how it turned out."
Bob Peters of Lansing, who has served the cause of veterans within his leadership capacities at local and state levels, and beyond, says the clinic will be a real boost to local veterans, especially with the time saved and services offered. "This will really help out a lot of veterans, especially with the time spent traveling for simple appointments, like their blood tests," Peters said. "The van runs from here (Allamakee County) pretty much every day to Iowa City, leaving at 4:30 in the morning and returning sometimes as late as 4:30 or 5 o'clock at night, and that makes for a long day. And a lot of these guys are 80 to 90 years old, and it's tough for them to handle a ride like that."
The Allamakee County Veterans Affairs Office advises that the van that transports veterans to Iowa City continues to run on a current schedule of four days per week. No transportation system to the new outpatient clinic in Decorah has been set up at this point in time, and will depend upon the new clinic's schedule as it becomes more established, as well as the impact on passenger load any transfer of care from Iowa City to the new clinic in Decorah may have.
In addition to the reduced travel time for primary care, Homewood says she has also already seen an increase in usage of the VA health care system by those who may not necessarily have taken advantage of it previously. "We also see that many veterans that have never used the VA are now signing up for VA health care, as this will now be more accessible to them," she said. "This has been a long wait for our veterans and involved many legislators as well as a postcard campaign where veterans were asked to sign and send postcards to their legislators asking for a clinic in our area. We know this clinic means a lot to our veterans and will be greatly used."
Peters said he really didn't play much of a role in helping the clinic become reality, crediting the veterans organizations in Decorah and Winneshiek County. But he admits he did attend a lot of meetings with the Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City, and also spent some time on the telephone with the offices of Congressman Tom Latham and Senator Charles Grassley.
"Like a lot of people, I kept calling Latham's office and Grassley's office to keep bugging them about the need for the clinic," Peters said. "Once we got the congressmen and senators on board, things really started to move. I'm just glad to finally have it open, it's going to benefit an awful lot of people."
Veterans residing in Allamakee County who are interested in either transferring their primary care to the new clinic in Decorah or initially enrolling in the VA health care system may contact the Allamakee County Veterans Affairs Office at 563-568-6135 or simply stop by the office located at 12 First Avenue NW in Waukon.