Connected to the past, working for the future
Custom Report
As you visit this site you will find pieces of information that you may want to add to a Custom Profile. To do that simply click the "add" link that is associated with that information. Once you are finished gathering data simply click "View Custom Report" and that will take you directly to your report. From there you can email, print or create a PDF of that report.
Site Selected for Tomball VA Clinic
Posted: Monday, December 19, 2011
After months of speculation, the Houston Veterans Administration has chosen the former site of Klein’s Grocery Store as the location for its planned Tomball VA Clinic.
“It’s a very exciting day for our veterans and the population of Tomball,” said Robert Klein, owner of Klein’s Grocery Store. “We’re thrilled to death that the VA saw fit to put this size clinic in Tomball.”
The Veteran’s Administration has entered into a 20-year lease for the property, which was left vacant after the supermarket closed in April. Located at 1200 West Main St. in Tomball, the building has a total of 31,628 square feet of usable space, according to the Houston VA.
The clinic will provide services including primary health care, mental health care, women’s specialty care, optometry, audiology and pharmacy services.
Specialty care may also be provided depending on the most prominent needs of the population being served.
“We’ll provide a lot of functions folks can use right here so they don’t have to travel [to the Houston Medical Center],” said Larry Steward, Houston VA health systems specialist. “We want to get into the areas where there’s a good number of veterans and make it convenient for them.”
With an estimated 46,000 veterans living in the Tomball area, the clinic is expected to serve 8,000 different patients per year and accommodate more than 40,000 visits.
“Our concept with the [Community Based Outpatient] clinics is for use as a medical center to deliver primary health care and mental health care in the communities where our veterans live,” said Francisco Vazquez, associate medical center director for the Houston VA.. “Tomball is an area where we have a significant veteran population. It’s an area of growth, and an area where it would be a win/win situation for the veteran and for us from the perspective that they would receive the same level of care they would receive at the Medical Center.”
Now that the site has been selected, the next step will be completing the layout and design plans. The inside of the building will have to be built out to fit the needs of the clinic, according to Steward. The VA will work with the architecture firm, Silvestri, and give them examples of what works well in other similar clinic sites.
“We are hoping to start construction in February and be open by fall 2012,” Steward said.
The Houston VA made an initial trip to Tomball in November 2010 to take a preliminary look at available sites and put out its official notice for bids for prospective sites in March. Tomball Regional Medical Center was also being considered as a possible site with the clinic to take up a vacant floor in the hospital. Congressman Michael McCaul, who has spearheaded the project, announced Klein’s Supermarket as the selected site Oct. 6.
Currently, area veterans must go to the VA Medical Center is Houston for medical services. Demand for services continues to rise rapidly and the number of outpatient visits to the hospital have almost doubled in the past 10 years, with nearly 475,000 visits in 2000 and more than 860,000 in 2010.
“The driving force behind all of this effort is to pay back the debt we owe to our nation’s heroes,” Vazquez said. “We provide care that they have earned through their sacrifice.”
