Phoenix VA’s new 200,000-square-feet clinic

Phoenix VA’s much-anticipated and newest outpatient clinic, the Phoenix 32nd Street VA Clinic, opened its doors to Veteran patient care June 27, 2022.

The new state-of-the-art facility is in the Gateway neighborhood of Phoenix and consists of approximately 203,000 net usable square feet of clinical space housed on a 19-acre site.

Phoenix VA is responsible for providing health care and other services to Veterans in Maricopa, Pinal, Gila and Navajo Counties in Arizona. There are around 120,000 current Veteran enrollees in that area, and the number is projected to continue to grow over the next 20 years.

Jamull Abdul-Rashad was one of the first patients seen at the new clinic.

“As the Veterans we care for continue to age, the demand for health care services will grow at an even greater rate,” said Michael Welsh, interim Medical Center director. “This clinic will provide much-needed outpatient space to consolidate Primary Care and Outpatient Mental Health services, and decompress the Carl T. Haden VA Medical Center to allow expansion in specialty services.”

Several clinics relocated to new facility

The primary care services that were provided at the Emerald and Academic Clinics, Midtown and Thunderbird community based outpatient clinics have been relocated to the new facility. General mental health will be able to provide mental health services now to this patient population at the same site. The new clinic is located within five miles of the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center.

“The size of the new facility provides the needed space to expand care to more patients. The clinic will serve over 40,000 Veterans and will continue to serve them for years to come,” Welsh said. “The design and services will improve patient satisfaction in our Veterans’ experiences. The state-of-art equipment and facility design will allow the staff to work efficiently in their new environment.”

The clinic will consist of primary care and primary mental health services along with the ancillary services of the patient aligned care team model of clinical nutrition, social work and clinical pharmacy.

Wide variety of services available in one location

Imaging services will be located on site. It will include general X-ray, computerized tomography (CT) scan, radiographic fluoroscopy, ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A dispensing pharmacy is also located on site. The laboratory specimen collection will be on-site.

A specialty clinic is planned on the first level to provide select specialty services via Clinical Video Tele-Health. In addition, the facility includes a Veterans Resource Center, education conference rooms and a canteen.

1370 parking spaces

A parking lot, including 1,370 parking spaces, is available to accommodate Veterans, visitors and staff at the new facility. The site is entirely enclosed by an 8-foot perimeter fence.

Donald Remy, VA deputy secretary, served as the keynote speaker at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the facility.

“This ceremony represents a great day for VA and a great day for Phoenix Veterans,” Remy said. “We heard the statistics on how many Veterans are moving to this area and how many Veterans are going to be able to be serviced here at this clinic. Our Veterans deserve that opportunity to be in a facility just like this.”