May 2010:

Cranberry VA outpatient clinic offers care with convenience

By Rick Wills
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, May 6, 2010

VA Butler Healthcare's Cranberry outpatient clinic, which opened in December, will officially be dedicated on Friday.

Located in the Freedom Square Mall, the clinic is expected to serve about 3,000 veterans each year.

"This provides more convenient access. People can get their care closer to home," said Ginny Yelland, a health system specialist with VA Butler Healthcare.

The clinic is the fifth that VA Butler Healthcare has opened since 1998. The others are in Mercer, Lawrence, Armstrong and Clarion counties.

"This center provides well-deserved medical services in a more convenient manner," said Jerry Andree, Cranberry's manager. "We look forward to working with the Veteran's Administration in helping to educate our veterans about the services that are available to them at their outpatient center."

The clinic will offer behavioral health, weight management, physical medicine, rehabilitation and women's veteran services. A pharmacy also is housed inside the clinic.

"We have seen about 850 veterans so far this year," said Rachel Harrington, the clinic's administrator. "But many people still do not know that we are here."

The clinic, which is about 20 miles from VA Butler Healthcare's main facility, meets a demand in an area whose large employers include Westinghouse and a large bulk mail facility, Harrington said.

"The clinics have grown. When they were started, they were open just one day a week. Now they are all open five days," Yelland said.

Services in Cranberry are being provided through a contractor, Valor Healthcare, a Washington, D.C., company that operates 17 community-based outpatient clinics in nine states.