CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO – Congressman Jason Smith recently toured the new Cape Girardeau VA Health Care Center, which opened on February 26.
“One of my highest privileges in Congress is to be able to serve our country’s heroes, which is why I’m so excited about the new clinic in Cape,” stated Smith. “This expanded facility will be able to serve 60 percent more veterans than the old clinic, which is huge. In trying to get this clinic expanded, we had to cut through a lot of bureaucratic red tape, but after seeing the clinic in person, I can say the result was worth the effort. Our veterans have earned quality health care, and I’m confident it will be delivered at this state-of-the-art facility.”
Congressman Jason Smith (pictured with Health Care Center Director Libby Johnson) tours the new expanded Cape Girardeau VA Health Care Center he helped create, which opened on February 26. The center expects to have a staff of 150 and will serve approximately 8,000 veterans in the area.
The Cape Girardeau clinic expansion was authorized as part of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act in 2014, which Congressman Smith worked to ensure was included and which he voted for. Construction was announced in September of 2019. In the intervening years, Congressman Smith worked to clear unnecessary red tape that held up construction from starting, at one point jeopardizing whether the project would happen or not.
The clinic offers primary care; mental health services; specialty services including gastroenterology, dermatology, hematology, oncology, optometry, orthopedics, and audiology; cardiopulmonary services; outpatient surgery; laboratory and radiology; and pharmacy services, among others. The new clinic will be able to serve approximately 8,000 veterans, compared to the old clinic which was able to serve approximately 5,000 veterans. Once fully staffed, it will feature about 150 staff in total.
During the tour, the congressman heard how the supply chain shortage and worker shortage are affecting the clinic. The supply chain shortage has caused a delay in some specialty care services from being opened because they are waiting on critical equipment. The worker shortage has prevented services like the pharmacy from opening because the pharmacy can’t receive drugs until it is fully staffed. And officials still have more jobs available – no one has applied for the housekeeping staff positions that are available.
“No employers are immune from the crises affecting our economy,” stated Smith. “The worker crisis and the supply chain crisis have left so many people worse off, and now we see that veterans are being impacted too, particularly those in need of specialty care. We need Washington totally focused on solving these critical challenges, and we need oversight of the decisions that have led to such severe crises across our nation. Rest assured my focus is on fixing the problem and fixing the Washington policies that have led us to this point.”
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