Cape Coral VA facility unveils 'healing environment,' added capabilities

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·         Cape Coral VA facility unveils 'healing environment,' added capabilities

·         12:10 AM, Sep. 28,

·         Written by

·         Frank Gluck

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·         Scott Rogowski shows off an operating room at the VA outpatient clinic in north Cape Coral that opens in December. / Andrew West/news-press.com

·         The facility

·         • Location: 2489 Diplomat Parkway E., Cape Coral. 
• Open date: Dec. 17 
• Size: 220,000 square feet 
• Some of what it offers: Eight operating rooms, four soundproof audiology booths for hearing evaluation, a 3,200-square-foot laboratory, a 4,500-square-foot pharmacy and nine dental offices.

·         The first thing apparent when you step inside the soon-to-open VA outpatient clinic in Cape Coral is the light.

·         Broad windows and expansive views of the surrounding landscape define the new 220,000-square-foot building on Diplomat Parkway. The concept is part practical — it helps reduce the electric bill for artificial lighting — and part therapeutic.

·         The front lobby design includes a four-story “glass curtain” wall to flood the building with sunlight and convey a wide open sense of space.

·         “It’s very much a healing environment,” said Suzanne Klinker, director of the Bay Pines VA Healthcare System, which oversees the new clinic. “Light makes everyone feel good.”

·         Klinker, assorted VA officials and members of the media got an early look inside the new $60 million building Thursday, almost three months before its scheduled Dec. 17 opening date.

·         Today, construction is largely done and workers are installing medical equipment and furniture.

·         The new clinic is triple the size of the VA clinic in Fort Myers and has room for expansion on the 30-acre site, officials say.

·         It is designed to serve the estimated 250,000 veterans living in Southwest Florida, snowbird veterans and the more than 31,000 patients the Fort Myers clinic saw last year.

·         Like the existing 14-year-old clinic on Winkler Extension in Fort Myers, this facility is an outpatient clinic only and is not designed for overnight stays.

·         But it allows for expanded services including primary care, orthopedics, imaging and health testing, mental health, dental services and women’s care.

·         The new building includes eight operating rooms, four soundproof audiology booths for hearing evaluation, a 3,200-square-foot laboratory, a 4,500-square-foot pharmacy and nine dental offices, according to Manhattan Construction, which supervised the project.

·         Unlike the existing clinic, the new facility also will have an on-site coffee and food “bistro” for staff and visitors.

·         The VA is recruiting another 70 hospital staffers, including doctors and nurses, who will bring the total employee number to 400.

·         Some preference will be given to veterans, said VA spokesman Jason Dangel.

·         “We really enjoy employing veterans — veterans serving veterans in our facility,” he said.

 

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