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Post 416 Commander Ken Kelly, left, and Past Post Commander Bob Silvery were instrumental in bringing a VA clinic to their town.
Photo By Sarah Conard |
BY BRANDY BALLENGER
Farmington, Mo., is a proud heartland town of about 15,000 that fans out beneath a massive water tower bearing its name. It is a place where the dichotomy between tradition and progress is impossible to miss. Fast-food restaurants, laundromats and the local Wal-Mart tie the outskirts together. Antebellum homes with verandas and turrets fill the historic downtown. There are more than two-dozen churches. Community service and honor for veterans, both living and dead, are patriotically held values. The names of residents who lost their lives to war are etched onto a five-panel granite memorial. And today, when a funeral procession for a fallen Farmington-area soldier passes through, residents line the streets and wave American flags.
In the early 1990s, Farmington – like most Midwestern towns – faced a growing need to provide health-care services to veterans. American Legion Post 416 responded by volunteering its gravel parking lot for a mobile VA clinic operated out of a bus. Two days a week, veterans gathered there for treatment. As word spread, the number seeking services increased. Two days became five. Finally, need outpaced capacity. Rented space had to be secured, and when the number of veterans treated in the cramped rented clinic passed 2,000, yet another expansion was brought to the table. A new, stand-alone clinic was needed, and once again, Post 416 had an answer.
The town was well-equipped for its non-veteran patients, with two hospitals, a state mental institution, and cancer and dialysis centers. But the unique health-care needs of Farmington’s veteran population were going unmet, American Legion Post 416 Commander Ken Kelly says. “A kid working at Taco Bell could use his (health-care plan) at any of these hospitals, but there was nothing here for the veterans,” he says.
The nearest VA medical center is an 80-mile drive to Poplar Bluff. “I have a lot of back pain and trouble with my kidneys,” says Kevin Young, a Desert Storm veteran. “Sitting is hard, and driving is even worse. The trip to the Poplar Bluff hospital was three hours round-trip, an all-day ordeal. It would take me days to recover.”
VA had recognized the need for a new community-based outpatient clinic somewhere in the six-county region. But Post 416 members knew that in order to have it located in Farmington, it would have to compete with other cities in the region. They would need to obtain funding, secure land, and offer their services to keep the clinic supplied and running. They would need a decade’s worth of patience.
Fortunately for local veterans, Post 416 was willing and able to make that investment.
Farmington had a secret weapon in its arsenal: Bob Silvey. A Purple Heart recipient and member of the famed 82nd Airborne Division, he had parachuted into France the night before D-Day. Silvey isn’t one to brag about his accomplishments, military or otherwise, but fellow veterans Ernie Harris and Charlie Germeroth say that when their friend dedicates himself to a mission, roadblocks crumble before him. “About 15 years ago, we needed money for a new post home,” Germeroth says, “They told Bob the most he could expect to get for the old basement hall would be $5,000, that he’d be lucky to get that much.” Two days later, Silvey sold it for $50,000.
When asked if this story is true, Silvey just shrugs and smiles. “I guess it is.” The three veterans share a laugh, and Germeroth gestures toward Silvey. “This man here is a hero in this town.”
The clinic, built and now maintained by The American Legion post, is a monument to Germeroth’s opinion of Silvey. Through a special congressional decree, the Robert Silvey Outpatient Clinic is the only VA clinic in the United States named after a living person, and it’s a testament to the thousands of hours the World War II veteran dedicated to making it a reality. If urged, Silvey might tell you he merely did what was needed to get the job done. But Germeroth and Harris aren’t so shy. They enthusiastically describe how Silvey talked the state hospital into selling the clinic’s land for a reasonable price, how he worked with Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., to gain political support, how he secured a construction loan for $400,000 from a local bank, and how he ensured local contractors were hired to do quality work on time. “We had a man there every day, to make sure things were done right the first time,” Silvey says.
Closely monitoring every step of the process were the Farmington-area veterans, including Harris, who can’t help but show off the hand-whittled walking stick he carries. “This was a branch of a tree that stood right where the clinic is now.”
The primary goal, from the time the idea was conceived over a decade ago until the moment the doors opened in August 2006, was a reduction in the waiting time and easier access to VA health care. It’s a goal the Legionnaires of Farmington are now realizing. VA leases the new clinic space from The American Legion and provides medical and support staff. Patients register at the hospital in Poplar Bluff and receive treatment in Farmington. The veterans provide maintenance and facility management.
And, as expected, the clinic has become a magnet for veterans in need of medical care. In the first six months, more than 13,000 visits were logged. Local veterans suddenly discovered they could get treatment locally that previously required a trip to Poplar Bluff. A wide range of primary-care services is now offered, along with lab work and telemedicine, which uses TVs to remotely connect patients to hospital doctors when specialized care is needed. The clinic’s telemedical program is also used for group treatment in smoking cessation, nutrition and exercise programs. Hailed as the future of rural VA health care, telemedicine allows clinics like Farmington’s to offer patients state-of-the-art care while eliminating the inconveniences of travel and crowded waiting rooms.
From VA’s perspective, this type of satellite clinic is extremely beneficial. “Clinics like these ease the flow of traffic through the hospitals,” says Chuck Hayden, compliance officer for Poplar Bluff VA Medical Center. He adds that community-based outpatient clinics, or CBOCs, are easily staffed and usually have little turnover. “VA is the employer of choice in rural areas like these. Most of the doctors and nurses live here.”
Hayden advises other communities to consider following Farmington’s example. Communication is a good start, he says. “Build working relationships with VA. Start sending respresentatives from your veterans service organizations to the monthly meetings held at your area’s VA hospital.” Kelly has additional advice. “Get the money first,” he says, grinning. The cost for the new Farmington clinic, both in terms of time and money, was substantial for local veterans who brought it to life. But it was worth every hour and every penny, says Silvey, who believes this kind of project is the just what veterans service organizations should be doing. “Members of The American Legion don’t just represent the organization. They are here to work for other veterans in their communities.” Repaying the loan that built the Silvey clinic is now the post’s top priority. Donations have chipped away at the debt, but years of additional generosity will be needed to retire it. Long-term commitments, however, aren’t unusual in this part of America, where a VA clinic like this does more than treat patients; it embodies the town’s character, its sense of community service and support, honor of veterans, and the passion of citizens like Bob Silvey and Ken Kelly.
Today, when the men look at the clinic, they see only the future. At the rear of the building, one wall remains unbricked. It’s not an oversight. Expansion is inevitable, and they’re already preparing for it. “I guess we’re going to have to build on soon,” Silvey acknowledges, listing future goals, like an urgent-care facility, in-house labs and even a post-traumatic stress disorder center. Not yet a year old, the clinic is already nearing maximum capacity again. Local veterans know the clinic will have to accommodate even more patients as time passes, and they look forward to the challenge of giving them a place to find care. “In 10 to 15 years, I’d like to see the boys coming home from today’s war getting premium care right here in Farmington,” Kelly says.
“If it wasn’t for this clinic, I don’t know what we’d do,” says Chasity Young, whose husband, Kevin, a Desert Storm veteran, suffers from a serious medical condition that requires him to visit a VA facility two to three times a month. “We’re grateful for the help here.”
Brandy Ballenger is an assistant editor at The American Legion Magazine.
