Lakewood, WA– Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland (WA-10) released the following statement after she joined Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System for a grand opening ceremony and tour of the new Olympia Community Based Outpatient Clinic.
“I’m elated to celebrate the opening of the first Veterans Affairs clinic in Olympia, which will help veterans across our region get the excellent, timely care they deserve. Our country made a promise to take care of our nation’s heroes when they come home, and the opening of this clinic will help us meet that promise for so many veterans in Olympia and across the South Sound,” said Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland.
While VA Puget Sound’s Olympia clinic will physically open for patients beginning August 16, virtual care has been provided by the Olympia team since February 1, 2021, with any in-person care provided at VA Puget Sound’s American Lake campus.
Services at the new 9,739 sq. ft. VA-operated Olympia outpatient clinic include primary care (in-clinic and home-based), laboratory services, behavioral health, women’s health, social work, prosthetics/orthotics, clinical pharmacy specialists, telemedicine, and nutrition.
“We are delighted to open VA Puget Sound’s first-ever outpatient clinic in Olympia—the third VA-operated outpatient clinic we’ve opened in less than three months,” said VA Puget Sound Director Michael Tadych. “At full capacity, our Olympia care team clinic team will be able to care for more than 10,000 enrolled patients—further proof of our commitment to make getting care easier for Veterans across Western Washington.”
The new Olympia clinic (located at Memorial Medical Plaza, 500 Lilly Rd. NE, Suite 201, Olympia, WA 98506) will have up to 10 Patient Aligned Care Teams (known as PACTs), supporting approximately 10,000 enrolled Veterans (growth will take place over time, based on patient needs). Across the three new VA operated clinics in Olympia, Edmonds and Puyallup, that total capacity for enrolled Veterans in that region will increase to approximately 16,000 across those three new care sites alone.
The new clinics are part of a larger system redesigned to better serve Western Washington. In addition to its three new clinics, VA Puget Sound is expected to open a new $4.6 million, 26,000 sq. ft. clinic in Everett mid-2022. It is also exploring new clinics in the Auburn/Kent, North King County areas. Together, the new clinical footprint will allow VA Puget Sound to directly serve Everett and Olympia, two major metropolitan areas in Western Washington with no VA facilities currently. Additionally, it will create new capacity for areas of highest growth in South King and Pierce counties as well as provide better outreach to rural Veterans in North King County. While Bellevue residents are currently being served by VA Puget Sound’s Seattle Campus, it is actively planning for future clinics in Auburn and Woodinville
VA Puget Sound has experienced a 60 percent growth in its service population in the last 10 years while space essentially remained unchanged. To address the space constraints and better serve Veterans where they are geographically located, the VA continues with facility renovations and new construction projects across its catchment area—$121 million Mental Health and Research Building in Seattle (March 2019); $9.7 million, 15,000-square-foot Silverdale clinic (December 2019) that replaced its clinic in Bremerton; and $4.3 million, 14,000 sq. ft. Community Resource and Referral Center in Georgetown (December 2019). Additionally, it continues renovations to its American Lake campus to support expanded primary care, while optimizing its specialty care programs and services.
Patients interested in seeking care at the Olympia clinic should call 253-583-2621 or 800-329-8387.
VA Puget Sound provides comprehensive care to more than 150,000 Veterans across the Pacific Northwest—approximately 110,000 are enrolled with a primary care team at one of its care sites. As the VA’s 5th largest research program, VA Puget Sound has research in virtually every major clinical department, including: TBI and multiple blast exposures; memory improvement and Alzheimer’s Disease; PTSD and deployment health; Parkinson’s Disease; diabetes; cancer; substance abuse; lower limb prosthetics; genomics; and Health Services. Additionally, it has seven nationally recognized Centers of Excellence (in areas from limb-loss prevention and prosthetic engineering to primary care education and substance abuse treatment). For more information visit www.pugetsound.va.gov.
Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland serves as Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and is the only African-American woman to serve on the House Armed Services Committee. She is one of the first Korean-American women elected to Congress and the first African-American to represent the Pacific Northwest at the federal level.
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