Oklahoma City VA experiencing massive growth; responds with expansion plans
According to fiscal year 2023 statistics, Oklahoma City Veterans Affairs Health Care System has become the fastest-growing VA in the nation.
Making connections
Kristopher Wade Vlosich, OKC VA HCS director, attributes such rapid growth to community engagement and outreach efforts, particularly to isolated Veterans.
“Many Veterans are not sure if they are eligible for VA healthcare,” said Vlosich. “We have traveled to remote locations to personally reach out to our Veteran population and provide answers to their questions through our PACT Act resource fairs.”
To accommodate Veterans living in rural locations and those scattered across the state, the facility has added telehealth services for audiology, eye services and other specialty clinics.
Unprecedented growth
In August and September of this year, Vlosich said OKC VA averaged about 22 new registrations a day.
“Overall, this fiscal year, we saw 13,991 first-time users, which was 18% of our overall users within the Oklahoma City VA,” he said. “That is about a 20% increase over the last four years, when most other VA facilities average between 1-3% annual growth.”
Vlosich said keeping up with established patients with so many new patients coming in presents a challenge, but the facility is also expanding and growing to meet all satisfaction and clinical care needs.
Responding to the need
Expansion is the primary focus for this health care system.
“We're looking at how we can further expand outreach into our community,” Vlosich said. “For instance, new clinics will be built in Woodward and we're expanding our Stillwater and Yukon clinics.”
Another area of growth is occurring among this facility’s female Veteran population. Expanded services for women now include a mammography clinic and plans to build a new women's only stand-alone clinic.
Other plans include securing facilities for inpatient services, substance abuse treatment and long-term care as well as opening a Fisher House for Veterans’ families.
OKC VA HCS intends to develop additional community and state partnerships, hold town halls and community health fairs to foster communication with Veterans, launch a mobile medical unit to treat the homeless population and even establish their own ambulance service. Such efforts, combined with skyrocketing enrollment, require staff.
Developing staff support
Hiring fairs and recruitment incentives have helped bring new employees on board.
“On average, we're bringing on about 30 to 40 staff members every two weeks just to meet demand,” Vlosich said. “We've added new primary care teams for most of our community-based outpatient clinics.”
Staff recognition
Vlosich also acknowledged the efforts of current employees during this season of growth. He said OKC VA employees have stepped up to meet Veterans’ needs.
“They've worked overtime,” said Vlosich. “During COVID, we had employees spending the night in the hospital just to take care of our Veterans. We appreciate their dedication because, without them, many could go without healthcare, and our Veterans are our most precious resource.”
For more information, visit: OKC VA.
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April Love is a Writer-Editor on the VISN 19 Creative Task Force. She began working for Denver VA in 2016 and lives in Aurora, Colorado.