After a long search, a project team with the Beckley Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC) has found a site for a veterans clinic near Lewisburg.

The new clinic will be located in Maxwelton at 804 Industrial Park Road, next to the Lewisburg Airport off of Route 219. The VA will lease space for the 5,700 square foot facility from the Greenbrier Valley Economic Development Corporation.

The community-based outpatient clinic (CBOC) will serve up to 2,400 veterans and provide various medical services including primary physician care, home-based primary care and general mental health services.

The VA wanted to open the clinic by the end of 2009, but the project team had difficulty locating a suitable site. The opening date is now scheduled for late summer or early fall this year.

Local veterans qualifying for VA medical care received letters late last year asking for an election to receive primary care at the Lewisburg CBOC or to continue receiving care at the Beckley VAMC. According to Bruce Sprecher, director of public affairs for the VA Mid-Atlantic Health Care Network, those who don't switch now will have the choice to make the switch at a later date.

Pocahontas County veterans enrolled at the Beckley VAMC will reduce their travel for primary care by 50 miles if they elect to utilize the Lewisburg clinic.

In June 2008, Congress and the VA authorized six new CBOCs in the mid-Atlantic region, including Lewisburg; Emporia, Virginia; Staunton, Virginia; Wytheville, Virginia; Lumberton, North Carolina and Rutherfordton, North Carolina.

A 2000 VA survey indicated that veterans were more pleased with the care they received at CBOCs than veterans who received care at VAMCs.