Monroeville VA clinic expected to serve up to 10,000 veterans annually

Veterans Affairs officials are certainly proud of the work done at their flagship hospital in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood. But they’re also well aware of the drawbacks elderly veterans face when walking up the aptly-named “Cardiac Hill” to their appointments.

“There are a lot of steep hills, and in bad weather it can be very tough to get to, on top of parking and navigating a 10-story garage,” said VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System Director Donald Koenig. “We wanted to create an opportunity for veterans to access the care they need much more conveniently.”

Work is well under way for the $92 million outpatient clinic, which will be located behind the Monroeville Mall along Mall Boulevard.

Currently, the two closest VA clinics to Monroeville are the Pittsburgh VA Medical Center in Oakland and the H. John Heinz III Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center in O’Hara. Adding a third clinic – particularly one located close to Route 22, the Parkway East and the Pennsylvania Turnpike – would reduce drive times for some veterans residing east of Pittsburgh and make access easier, Koenig said.

The outpatient clinic will employ nearly 140 people, according to VAPHS Assistant Director Alan Petrazzi, with 14 primary care teams projected to serve more than 10,000 veterans annually.

“We know Allegheny County is one of the most veteran-dense counties in the nation,” Petrazzi said. “So we wanted to place this facility where there were major roads, and we wanted it located along the bus line, so veterans using public transportation can also get there easily.”

The clinic will also be close to shopping, food, lodging and other amenities, and its location just off Route 22 will provide quicker access for veterans living in Westmoreland County.

“Veterans’ families can find things to do during their visit, or veterans themselves can get other errands done during their visit to the area,” Petrazzi said.

The 64,000 square-foot clinic will have a full laboratory as well as areas for physical therapy, radiology, podiatry, optometry, hematology, oncology, a pain clinic and a mobile MRI machine, and will be the VA’s sixth and largest community-based outpatient center in the region.

Koenig said it is part of the VA’s larger, long-term philosophy of bringing care to veterans.

“The VA has been focused very much in the past five to ten years on how to take care of veterans closer to where they live,” he said. “Instead of building massive hospitals and telling people to come to us, we’re building comprehensive outpatient centers sprinkled around where veterans live.

Petrazzi said VA officials expect to occupy the building by spring of 2023.

Summit Smith Development, a division of C.D. Smith Construction, is building the facility, for which the VA has secured a 20-year lease.

Koenig said he’s excited to see the new clinic’s effects system-wide.

“It will not only reduce the commute time for thousands of veterans in our eastern suburbs, but relieve parking congestion for both veterans and staff at our flagship location in Oakland,” he said.