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NEWS BRIEFS
Mobile veterans clinic visits secluded W.Va. towns
SUMMERSVILLE, W.Va. (AP) — Three days a week, a group of health professionals piles into the back of a van and follows its traveling clinic to some of West Virginia's most secluded towns. The six-member team of the VA Mobile Health Care Clinic has spent the past year traveling to 19 north-central counties to bring basic medical services to the state's veterans.
"Health care should not be dependent on the patient's ability to get to the health care," said Ron Sandreth, operations manager for the community and rural health program for the Clarksburg Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center.
"We don't want them not to use VA health care because they can't get to it."
The mobile health clinic has seen more than 1,000 veterans since its start in July last year.
Many of the patients the team sees have not been to a doctor in more than 10 years because of a lack of transportation, insurance or because they have not signed up to receive VA health benefits, Sandreth said.
West Virginia has one of the highest per capita rates of veterans in the nation, with about one in nine residents having served in the military, Sandreth said. However, only 35 percent of the state's veterans have registered with the VA to receive health care.
Many forget, he said, or just don't know about the benefits they are entitled to.
VA health care is a service offered to veterans when they signed their military contract stating they would lay down their life "for God and country," said Dr. Sidney Jackson, a colonel with the Air National Guard and a physician with the unit.
Now, it's the VA's turn to make sure they are receiving the care they need, Jackson said.
The group is made up of several nurses, a doctor, driver, enrollment officer and a nurse practitioner. It offers vaccinations, blood work, prescriptions, mental health and diabetes screening and basic primary-care services.
The group of mostly veterans and members of the National Guard work out of a 42-foot truck outfitted with two exam rooms and a nursing triage station.
"The response has been tremendous," Sandreth said. "The more we're out there, the more we serve."
Since the start of the program, the group has enrolled about 500 veterans, the majority of whom are in their 50s and 60s.
The team also has sent three clinic visitors to the hospital in an ambulance because of pressing heart issues that the patients were not aware of.
"It's the things that if you don't get to a doctor on a regular basis that you don't know about," Jackson said.
According to Jim Ninehouser, driver and enrollment officer with the unit, about 40 percent of the veterans the group sees do not visit a doctor regularly. Many have not been to a doctor in more than 10 years, he said.
On Wednesday, the team veered off its usual path and set up shop in Summersville through a partnership with the Beckley VA Medical Center and the area's Workforce West Virginia office.
By noon Wednesday, the group had seen three patients and signed one new veteran into the VA program.
Steve Evernham of Lincoln County happened on the mobile clinic Wednesday parked near the community's Food Lion.
Evernham suffered a heart attack last week and stopped in for a quick checkup. He regularly uses the Braxton County VA clinic.
He took a handful of brochures Wednesday to pass out to his friends and fellow veterans.
"I'm trying to help get them exposure," Evernham said. "There are so many veterans, especially young veterans, that are not taking advantage of the VA."
"So many young fellers get caught up in getting out and making a living, and they just forget, or they don't know," he said. "I'm kind of appalled they don't know."
The mobile clinic started in 2009 with funding from the federal government for the Clarksburg VA to run the program for two years. The medical center was one of four VA centers in the nation to receive funding for the mobile units, which also have been set up in Maine, Wyoming and Washington state.
The medical center applied to take part in the program based on West Virginia's rural nature, its high number of veterans and low number of former service members taking advantage of VA benefits, Sandreth said.
"The rural health plan is really working," Sandreth said.
The higher number of people the VA is able to reach, the better the resources and care the center is able to provide to residents, he said.
The team has been treating patients on a walk-in basis for the past year, but has begun to incorporate a schedule in the cities and towns they visit so patients can begin to make appointments.
For more information about the mobile clinic, or for a schedule, call 304-844-7463.
