On its first day of operation, the waiting room of the Leo C. Chase Jr. Veterans Affairs Clinic in St. Augustine was nearly full just after 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Long in coming, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' new outpatient medical clinic officially opened its doors and both staff and patients seemed pleased with the final results.
The new clinic, located at 100 Deerfield Preserve Blvd. off State Road 207, is 16,595 square feet with Spanish-style architecture. It replaces the Southpark Boulevard location, a series of makeshift modular buildings which served as an interim space after the complex previously located at 1955 U.S. 1 was closed in 2015.
VA clinic in the works for awhile: New Veterans Administration health clinic to open late June in St. Augustine
Construction delays and the COVID-19 pandemic pushed off the timeline for completion of the new building, which broke ground in November 2019.
The facility currently serves about 6,145 area Veterans within the Gainesville-based North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System, according to Thomas McKenzie, chief medical officer for the St. Augustine VA clinic.
The complex opened at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, seeing those who had previously scheduled appointments for primary care, mental health, phlebotomy, podiatry, physical therapy and other specialty care.
Approximately 60 staff are employed at the St. Augustine facility.
The clinic is named after Private First-Class Leo C. Chase Jr., St. Johns County’s first soldier to die in the Vietnam War.
Nationwide, new VA facilities, including the one in St. Augustine, are being built with a new model for delivery of health care. Community-based clinics are now focused around a system the VA is calling PACT (patient aligned care teams) which streamlines how a patient's individual care is handled.
For example, a client will now be seen by a team of four medical providers (a physician, nurse, licensed practical nurse and clerk) who assess a patient, doing everything from blood work to anecdotal reporting, and then make recommendations about the next course of action in managing that patient's care.
"It brings all the patients' needs together," said Craig Pasanen, clinic projects coordinator for the VA. "Instead of individual exam rooms, you go into one room and meet with a pod of providers at once."
“This is a great achievement for the NF/SGVHS,” said Health System Director Thomas Wisnieski. “The modern facility is larger than our previous locations in St. Johns County and will provide the needed resources for us to continue to care for our nation’s heroes.”
Ronnie Higgins, an Army Veteran who was scheduled for his first visit at the new facility Tuesday, told The Record he was impressed by the "amazing" upgrade to the St. Augustine VA clinic.
"It looks beautiful," said Higgins, 70, who suffers from cardiopulmonary and nerve damage issues. "Thank God for the VA; they have helped me so much in my life."
Dr. Donald Martin, a licensed social worker on staff at the St. Augustine clinic, said the facility would be a community asset "that all our Vets can be proud of."
"It's going to be a treatment motivator," Martin told The Record.
The VA is holding off on an official grand opening ceremony until sometime in the fall, with a special tribute to Leo Chase Jr.'s family.
It’s unclear what will happen to the temporary clinic at this time.
Bill Dudley, chair of the St. Johns County Veterans Council, has had ongoing discussions with the county about turning the structure into a space for homeless Veterans housing once the VA leaves.
"We are looking at the plausibility of repurposing it as a shelter," Dudley said in an April 26 interview with The Record. "That, of course, would have to be done with the guidance of county officials."
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