Keene CBOC ready for patients
By BOB AUDETTE /
Reformer Staff
Posted:
09/16/2011 03:00:00 AM EDT
Updated:
09/16/2011 07:29:31 AM EDT
Dr. Carol Blackwood, Jonathan Howe,
OPN, and Jennifer
Vingelis, RN, will be staffing the new Veterans Administration
Community Based
Outreach Clinic in Keene, N.H. (Bob Audette/Reformer)
Friday
September 16, 2011
KEENE, N.H.
-- The staff at the
Veterans Administration's new Community Based Outreach Clinic is
gearing up for
an influx of clients who no longer want to drive to White River
Junction in
Vermont to receive medical care.
"We are
going to be very
busy," said Dr. Carol Blackwood, physician in charge.
Blackwood,
who recently retired from
the U.S. Navy, lives in Rockingham, Vt., and applied for the
position 18 months
ago.
"This has
been a long
road," she said.
The clinic
was first scheduled to
open in late spring, but due to some administrative snafus it
was delayed until
this month.
But now the
space in the Curran
Building at 640 Marlboro Street (Route 101, just east of Keene)
has been
renovated and outfitted and is ready to take clients.
"We'll be
able to provide the
services that most people need," said Blackwood, adding that the
clinic is
set up to provide many services specific to women.
The clinic
is open to veterans,
active duty personnel and members of the National Guard and
Reserves who have,
in the past, traveled to White River Junction, Manchester and
Northampton,
Mass., for medical services.
It will be
open five days a week.
Helping out
around the clinic will
be Jennifer Vingelis, an RN, from Troy, N.H., and Jonathan Howe,
an OPN, from
Bellows Falls.
Both have
connections to veterans.
Vingelis
spent three months at WRJ
and worked for the U.S. Air Force in Tucson.
"I am very
excited to help take
care of veterans," she said. "Veterans deserve high-quality
health
care."
Howe was in
the Navy as a hospital
corpsman.
"I like
working with
veterans," he said. "Being a veteran myself, we have a common
bond.
They tell us things they wouldn't normally tell someone else.
There's trust
right off."
The clinic
has six examination
rooms, a lab, offices and a conference room, said Blackwood
"We have
room for four more
providers and the VA is more than willing to hire additional
people," she
said. "If the vets come, we will expand to meet the need."
The VA is
currently negotiating with
Cheshire Medical Center in Keene to help supply some services,
and overnight
stays if needed, that the CBOC can't provide.
The clinic
will also have a contract
with a designated pharmacy where veterans will be able to pick
up some
prescriptions immediately, rather than having to wait for a mail
delivery or
make a trip to White River Junction.
Blackwood
said the CBOC's equipment
is new and top-of-the-line and the clinic maintains all of its
records
electronically, making it easy for vets who used the White River
Junction
facility to transfer their records.
"We'll
still be connected to
the ‘mother ship' in White River," said Blackwood.
Unfortunately,
she said, because the
White River and Manchester facilities are in different
jurisdictions, and the
Keene CBOC is under WRJ, there can be no electronic transfer of
records from
Manchester.
Veterans
will still have to travel
to White River Junction for some services, such as seeing a
cardiologist or an
orthopedic specialist and the clinic will not be able to see
those with no
insurance, said Blackwood. Those people will still need to go to
a VA medical
center.
This is not
the first CBOC in the
area.
A clinic
was recently opened in the
Exit 1 Industrial Park in Brattleboro, but the Keene CBOC is the
Monadnock
region's first veterans health services facility.
"It is
tremendous news that
Keene area veterans finally have convenient access to
top-quality
healthcare," stated Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., in a press
release.
"Those who serve our country courageously deserve access to the
health
care benefits they've earned. I am glad that this long-standing
gap in New
Hampshire's veterans' services has finally been addressed."
Blackwood
grew up in Vermont's
Northeast Kingdom and joined the Navy in 1984.
After nine
years as an intelligence
officer, she decided she wanted to do something else and was
accepted into UVM
Medical School, which the Navy paid for.
Blackwood
is trained as a family
physician and has a certificate of added qualifications in
geriatrics.
Prior to
taking the job with the
Veterans Administration she worked at Grace Cottage Hospital in
Townshend, Vt.,
for a year-and-a-half.
Patients
seeking an appointment at
the Keene CBOC should call 603-358-4900.
--
Howie Howe
Veterans Service Officer, Patriot Guard Riders of NH
RC Coordinator, NH Help On The Homefront
Veterans Advocate, Wounded Warrior Project
To join NH HOTH: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhhoth/join