The Lebanon VA Medical Center recently released its master plan for the next decade.
Based on health service delivery projections for 2029, the master plan will guide the development of the medical campus. Finalized in May, the master plan will specifically inform new facility construction over this period.
Campus improvements specified in the master plan include a new stand-alone community living center, a new clinical laboratory expansion, and an expanded operating room for vascular surgery. (Access the full PDF of the master plan here.)
According to facilities manager Thad Kocuba, veterans currently in nursing home care reside in Building One of the Lebanon VA, but would move to the new stand-alone community living center once completed.
“It will be a single floor, and will have everything they need,” said Kocuba. “It will have a shared cooking area, a place to eat, they’ll each have their own bedroom views of the outside.”
Residents of the future community living center will also have access to safe outdoor spaces.
This is just one example of resources being moved or consolidated in an effort to improve the efficiency of the entire operation. Other services may be expanded or moved as part of the master plan’s realization over the coming years.
For instance, an operating room for interventional radiology is slated as part of the master plan, an addition that would allow the VA to provide a service it does not currently offer.
“Right now we send patients to other VAs for those types of services,” explained Ted Nichols II, public affairs specialist at Lebanon VA Medical Center. Nichols said that the addition of services will allow patients to get care closer to home.
According to Kocuba, there is some flexibility with the master plan, but the organization will generally stick to it.
“Every year we take a look at what our plan says, and if we feel we need to make adjustments we do,” he said. “I can tell you the last two (master plans) we’ve done, we’ve completed 90% of the projects that were made out of the master plan.”
For more information and a video explaining the master plan, click here.