The Veterans Administration is planning to build a clinic in Iola sometime in the next few years, provided it can find a location.
The VA wants to open a new Community-Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) at Iola and close several smaller clinics in Fort Scott, Garnett and Chanute.
The recommendation was made as part of a 10-year strategic plan announced in 2020.
Now, it’s all about finding the right location.
The VA is in the process of requesting lease proposals for a facility, Tom Boos, chief of strategic management and planning with the VA Eastern Kansas Healthcare System, said.
The plan is to offer a five-day clinic, Monday through Friday.
“We’ll offer primary care with some specialty care and mental health, but we have not yet identified any space or developed a timeframe when that clinic is going to be open,” Boos said.
CBOCs offer a variety of healthcare services, just about everything except surgery, in a smaller community setting.
“We’re all very excited about it,” Sheli Sweeney, outreach program specialist with the VA Eastern Kansas Healthcare System, said.
IN MAKING its recommendation for the Iola VA clinic, the Asset and Infrastructure Review Commission found it was unsustainable to split resources between the Fort Scott, Chanute and Garnett offices.
A more centralized clinic in Iola is expected to concentrate resources and staff to serve rural counties in southeast Kansas. The report estimated there were 860 enrollees within a 30-minute drive of Iola in 2019.
The Fort Scott clinic is located within a short distance of a VA clinic in Nevada, Mo., a more accessible location for most and where the enrollee population is expected to decrease by 11.9% over 10 years. Those who have used the Fort Scott clinic will either be enrolled at Iola or Nevada.
Clinics in Chanute and Garnett are open just one or two days a week inside hospitals at their respective communities.
The enrollee population in both areas is expected to decrease by 18.4% and 11.5%, respectively, by 2029. Those who currently use those clinics will be enrolled at either the proposed Iola clinic, or Parsons or Paola.
Staff at the existing clinics likely would move to the new Iola clinic when it opens.
