New Lakeland VA clinic, 5 times the size of the old one, is nearly ready to open

Lakeland's veterans clinic will begin moving into its new building off Lakeland Highlands Road next month.

Vanessa Osting, chief medical officer of the Lakeland VA Clinic, gave a presentation on the new site to Lakeland Economic Development Council members on Tuesday afternoon. Osting said staff will move into the new facility at 2080 Meadowland Park Blvd., behind Sam's Club, from May to June in a phased approach.

"Here we are finally," she said. "We waited a long time to have this, and we are really, really excited."

Osting said she has been promised a new, expanded facility for Lakeland and Polk County veterans for more than a decade. An appropriations bill allotting $11 million for construction signed by former President Donald Trump approved the clinic in August 2017.

The new Lakeland VA Administration building will consolidate the area's primary care and mental health facilities into an approximately 120,000-square-foot building. It's about five times larger than their current South Pipkin Road facility.

"It's a sardine can," Osting said about the current site.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs awarded a contract on Jan. 29, 2021, to PH LLC, doing business as The Molasky Group of Cos. Inc., to begin construction of the building. It was designed by Tennessee-based Gresham Smith before a groundbreaking was held in April 2021.

The new building will have about 100,000 square feet of usable space, Osting said, and its construction cost will end up about $57 million. The total cost with medical equipment, given the expansion of departments, will come closer to $100 million or more.

The larger building will allow for hiring of additional medical professionals and expansion of locally available health care services for veterans. Osting said she anticipates the clinic's current staff of 133 employees to nearly double to 235 to help serve approximately 12,000 patients that visit the Lakeland clinic each year.

Osting said the clinic's PACT teams, consisting of a physician, registered nurse, licensed practical nurse and a clerk, will increase from 13 to 18 units, with two floater physicians to provide additional coverage. The clinic will also expand its mental health department to 10 psychologists and nine psychiatrists.

The new site will allow the VA clinic to bring in several new departments, including visual services, Osting said, hiring one ophthalmologist and two optometrists to conduct eye exams. It will also offer an optics shop to provide eyeglasses.

Veterans who currently travel to Riverview or Tampa clinics for physical therapy may be able to receive onsite treatment at the new clinic, which will have its own physical therapy and prosthetics departments.

"We have a lot of prosthetic needs, not just for amputees but anything you can strap to the body," she said. "Knee braces, elbows ... we have a lot of needs for that."

Osting said the Lakeland clinic will offer audiology, podiatry, home oxygen services and a dispensing pharmacy to provide medications for veterans. It will expand its medical lab diagnostic services from ultrasounds and X-ray services to include CT scans and MRIs. There will be a full-service laboratory, Osting said, though samples will still be shuttled to Tampa for processing so there will be no immediate results.

Osting said the Lakeland VA clinic will not offer walk-in urgent care or emergency room services, which has been a point of confusion at other locations, particularly New Port Richey. The Lakeland VA clinic does work with contracted providers, including Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center and Winter Haven Hospital locally, covering up to three eligible urgent care or emergency room visits per year under the VA Mission Act.

The clinic will also have a home-based primary care service for veterans who are homebound and need medical services brought to them, Osting said.

"We're incredibly excited about having this facility," LEDC President Steve Scruggs said.

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Scruggs said veteran-run businesses can be great employers to have within the Lakeland community, but it's hard to attract them to come and live in the area without nearby medical facilities.

"For us, this is really a high-skill, high-wage infrastructure project for Lakeland," he said. "Maybe that's stretching it for some of you, but it's not for us."

Osting said she has seen an explosion of economic growth and development near the New Port Richey clinic, and she's already anticipating the clinic's opening to have the same affect in Lakeland.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new VA clinic is scheduled for July 26.

Sara-Megan Walsh can be reached at swalsh@theledger.com or 863-802-7545. Follow on X @SaraWalshFl.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: VA staff moving into new, larger Lakeland clinic next month