By Owen Sexton / owen@chronline.com
In a town hall meeting held Wednesday night at the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis, members of the Puget Sound Veterans Affairs (VA) office gathered with a handful of locals from throughout Lewis County to explain how veterans in the county can get access to VA care despite not having a local clinic.
According to Puget Sound VA Health Care System Executive Director Dr. Thomas Bundt, the main reason for the Chehalis clinic’s closure was high patient care costs. It was located at the Lewis County Mall prior to closing last year.
“Coming in at an $4 million annual price tag, the per-patient expenses under that contract were actually the highest in the entire nation. Beginning in August, our mobile medical unit has been here caring for patients locally,” Bundt said.
The VA has recently opened new clinics in other areas, including in Edmonds and Pyyallup. Bundt added that talks have been held considering a clinic in Longview.
Mobile Medical Unit Operations Manager Deborah Archer broke down the choice to close the Chehalis clinic.
“The contract price was so high that we were not able to renew that contract,” Archer said.
She said when the VA clinic in Chehalis closed in October 2021, roughly 3,400 veterans were receiving care there. About 3,000 chose to be transferred to the clinic in Olympia, while roughly 400 elected to find health care within their own communities instead. One of the biggest reasons why is the distance many in Lewis County must travel to get to the Olympia clinic.
Archer said around 2,000 of the veterans fell within the standard 30-minute drive time to get to the clinic in Olympia with another 1,000 having to travel more than 30 minutes in order to receive care.
Another option is telehealth conferences. The VA would provide tablets for veterans to use to schedule and participate.
Despite veterans being transferred to the Olympia clinic and the weekly deployment of the mobile medical unit, many of those in attendance still felt it was not enough to help veterans receive medical care.
Heidi Palmer, veterans service officer for Lewis County Public Health & Social Services and an Army veteran, said because roughly 10% of the county’s population is made up of veterans and many are older and live in rural areas, the telehealth conferences were not a viable option.
“With our pretty large senior community for veterans, that’s not really gonna be accessible very much, especially out in East County. If you’ve ever been out in Randle, Morton, that area, reception doesn’t exist so iPads are not gonna work. A lot of them don’t even know how to use their smartphones, so that’s a huge problem,” Palmer said. “Receiving an iPad, for a senior who does not enjoy computers and has to rely on their grandchildren or great-grandchildren to operate their phones, there needs to be some sort of alternative method.”
According to Archer, the VA does provide training resources to help veterans learn how to use the tablets.
Palmer also brought up a rumor that had been circulating that veterans who elect to use the mobile medical unit when it visits Chehalis were being subsequently dropped by their original VA primary care provider.
“Our veterans who are served by the mobile medical unit are still enrolled in Olympia. Our mobile medical unit has a different provider than they may have had in Olympia, so they get to make a choice to either stay with the provider in Olympia or they can be a part of the mobile medical unit with the provider who is assigned to this unit,” Archer said. “Also, when veterans are assigned to the mobile medical unit they have the full range of services for Olympia, so the provider who comes out here every Wednesday also works in Olympia so they have services in both of those locations with the same provider.”
Randle resident and Marine…
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