The Salem VA clinic has increased its hours to full time from the previous two days a month, according to the clinic’s leaders. The facility is now open Monday through Friday from 8 to 4:30 p.m. for all business office and triage needs. A health care provider will be onsite on Thursdays and Fridays. As enrollment at the clinic increases, the medical center will consider whether to extend the days a provider will be onsite.
Dr. Patricia Hall, Director of the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center in Poplar Bluff, which operates the Salem facility, is encouraging veterans to enroll for VA health care services; a process which can now be completed at the Salem clinic.
Earlier this year, nearly 6,000 Missourians, including about 1,600 rural veterans, signed a petition asking the clinic to serve veterans five days a week. U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) and Congressman Jason Smith (R-Missouri) also advocated for an increase in the facility’s business hours. McCaskill delivered the petitions, along with a letter, to the VA’s Under Secretary of Health in Washington, D.C.
The clinic, which serves veterans in about a six-county region, will hold a public ribbon-cutting celebration on January 17 at 11:00 a.m.
