Eight years after the Department of Veterans Affairs first opened a community-based outpatient clinic in Orangeburg, plans are being made to expand the facility to almost four times its current capacity.

Last week the VA placed an ad in The Times and Democrat seeking up to 17,657 net usable square feet of space for the purpose of expanding the current outpatient clinic. Specifications for the new facility include handicap accessibility, a minimum of 130 parking spaces and a lease term of 15 years with five one-year renewable options. In addition, the space must be located within 6 miles of 1464 Macon Drive in Orangeburg and be available for occupancy by Aug. 1, 2011.

William Jennings Bryan Dorn VA Medical Center Public Affairs Officer Priscilla Creamer says the expansion is part of the VA's effort to be proactive with regard to the growing veteran population in the area and across the state.

"The current lease of the Orangeburg outpatient clinic expires December 2011," Creamer said. "We are looking to expand from 5,000 square feet to 17,657 square feet. We want the new facility to be easily accessible and offer more space to accommodate the vets, to treat them in comfort.

"There is a team at the Dorn VA Center in Columbia tasked with assisting veterans returning from Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom," she said. "After the expansion, staff from that group will also be located at the Orangeburg clinic to help those veterans."

Orangeburg County Veteran Affairs Officer John Rivers says part of the veteran population growth anticipated by the VA deals with a health benefit reclassification.

"That involves an expansion of the number of veterans in Category Eight who will be eligible for access to five years of health care without charge," Rivers said. "An estimated 266,000 veterans nationwide who weren't eligible will now have access to primary and mental health care."

Creamer said the addition of more vets will occur June 15.

"We are foreseeing serving more of that veteran population in the Orangeburg area," Creamer said. "Any vet with income of 10 percent or less above the VA means test level will be eligible to receive health care at any of the satellite or outpatient VA clinics across the state."

Rivers said the veteran population in the Orangeburg area is as high as 7,200 and possibly larger.

"A veteran who may not have been eligible for VA health care before should go to their respective county veteran's affairs office and re-enroll for eligibility," Rivers said. "They may not be eligible, but we will file the necessary paperwork with the VA."

Jerry Sims, commander of the Orangeburg Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8166 and Purple Heart Chapter 932, has volunteered at the local VA clinic for three years. He says the proposed expansion is greatly needed.

"All we do here now is primary care and some mental health care," Sims said. "There aren't that many examination rooms and they aren't that big. The nurse manager and her staff do a fine job going beyond the call of duty to understand the veterans and what they need. It's needed because there are more and more vets returning from the last war who are coming for care."

Rivers said veterans who require specialists will still have to travel to Columbia.

"Our office provides transportation to the Dorn VA Center for those vets who need to see a specialist," Rivers said. "Volunteers drive them to Columbia, but right now we are critically low on folks to do that job. On average we are transporting 3-7 vets a day to and from Dorn. Anyone who would like to volunteer can call our office."

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T&D Staff Writer Phil Sarata can be reached by e-mail at psarata@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5540. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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