Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks is scheduled to break ground on its Springfield clinic 1 p.m. Oct. 25 at the parking lot of Southland Christian Church, next to the clinic site.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
announced in February plans to consolidate an existing Mount Vernon clinic into the new 92,000-square-foot facility at 1800 W. Republic Road, southeast of where Kansas Expressway currently ends at Republic Road. An extension of Kansas Expressway is planned to run adjacent to the VA property.
Chris Cook, VA senior resident engineer, said Westlake, Ohio-based Carnegie Management & Development Corp. is the developer of the clinic and the VA would lease the building. DeWitt & Associates Inc. is serving as general contractor. Cook, who travels for the VA to oversee clinic construction, moved to Springfield a year ago to work on the local facility. He declined to disclose the cost of the project, but noted construction would wrap around April 2018 and open to the public three or four months later.
The Gene Taylor Community Outpatient Clinic plans to serve some 9,000 veterans within a 30-mile drive of primary care. Services include primary care, mental health, dental, optometry, radiology, a sleep lab, prosthetics and pulmonary functions, according to a news release.
“Improving access for veterans in the southwest Missouri area has been a priority for some time, and we are happy to see this project moving forward,” said Bryan Matthews, medical center director, in the release.
In the works since at least 2013, the Queen City clinic is estimated to open in mid-2018, according to
Springfield Business Journal archives.
Based in Fayetteville, Arkansas,
Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks operates the Mount Vernon clinic, which will continue to operate until the Springfield site is finished, Cook said. It also has clinics in Branson, as well as Fort Smith, Harrison and Ozark in Arkansas and Jay in Oklahoma.
