Staff from Veterans Affairs held a town hall on Nov. 28 at the Anchor Point Senior Center to connect southern Kenai Peninsula veterans to services and address their concerns.
Veterans attending the meeting talked about lacking access to medical services locally. While there is a VA clinic in Homer, the clinic operates three days a week with a small permanent staff. Because of this, many veterans need to travel north to larger clinics in Soldotna or Anchorage to seek medical treatment.
Alaska VA Health Care System Executive Director Tom Steinbrunner said there are currently about 300 veterans in the southern peninsula enrolled in the VA system. A clinic like the one in Homer usually serves at least 1000 veterans in order to have a team of primary care providers within the community.
“When you get much lower than that, it's challenging to provide consistent, dedicated staffing, five days a week, because there's a utilization expectation for our providers to ensure that we're providing good support, not only for the veterans, but it's cost effective for the country,” he said.
Until recently, two providers from the Soldotna VA clinic would alternate days serving veterans out of the Homer clinic, meaning each provider would work in Homer once a week. However, the VA has hired a new provider based out of Homer to give veterans the opportunity to see the same person more consistently.
Steinbrunner said they are looking into addressing other staffing issues, such as making sure someone is available to answer phone calls to the clinic.
“We're also looking at adding additional staff to ensure that there's a continued presence, at least the three days that were physically open,” he said.
Looking forward, the VA may also work on outreach in the southern Kenai Peninsula to enroll more veterans in the area and expand the services provided.
