JUNCTION CITY (KSNT) – Two decades after the first Veterans Affairs (VA) facility opened in Junction City, veterans will soon have access to a new 46,000-square-foot facility designed to meet their health care needs better.
Veterans in Junction City, Geary County and across rural Kansas may soon have better access to the services they were promised thanks to a new VA outpatient facility. Today, there are two VA Eastern Kansas Health Care system outpatient facilities located in Junction City.
However, officials are saying the population of veterans has outgrown the facilities over the years. This new facility will be one of the main ones for veterans in this area that will be able to provide care under one roof, as this facility will be the largest VA clinic in Kansas.
“The growth in the number of veterans is in significant part related to the fact that when we have soldiers and families in our presence in this community, they are welcomed and made welcome and they feel comfortable calling this place home,” said Sen. Jerry Moran. “That increases the demand Veterans’ services.
The goal of A. Rudy Klopfer, the VA Eastern Kansas Health Care system’s executive director, for the past 14 years has been to increase access to care for veterans across Eastern Kansas. Being next to Fort Riley, he has seen a growth in need for mental health care for people in the area, especially among female veterans.
“On top of all of the veterans, this new clinic is going to have a focused female clinic area with rooms and specifically focusing on our female veterans,” Klopfer said. “Plus, because of the growth and the size of it, we’re going to bring some additional services that we haven’t had at one of the other two clinics, which includes eye clinic, which includes radiology enhancing primary care enhancing, of course, behavioral health care and other specialty services like rehabilitation services.”
The clinic is expected to open in two years.
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