VA breaks ground on new Daytona Beach clinic for primary care, mental health, specialties

DAYTONA BEACH — As bulldozers and dump trucks rumbled behind her Tuesday, Dr. Nichole Robinson rattled off some of the ways a new Veterans Administration multi-specialty clinic in Daytona Beach will serve those who served their country.

"We'll be adding cardiology, some (gastrointestinal), possibly some vascular and interventional pain management, just to name a few," Robinson, chief medical officer for the Daytona Beach VA clinic, said after a groundbreaking Tuesday at the new location, 1776 N. Williamson Blvd., expected to open in 2024.

All of it — plus 750 parking spaces, addressing one of the most common complaints about the William V. Chappell Jr. Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic — sounded good to Rod Phillips, a Samsula member of the Vietnam Veterans of America.

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With a rapid expansion of veterans needing service in the Volusia County area, officials have been working toward a new VA clinic in Daytona Beach since 2013. When it opens, in 2024, it will have been more than a decade of planning, procurement and construction.

"Ten years in the making, that's the bureaucracy that it takes, but we're here," Phillips said. "And in a couple of years, this will be a beautiful facility."

The new facility will replace the Chappell clinic as well as an annex at 1620 Mason Ave. It'll be located just south of the Daytona State College Advanced Technology College on Williamson Boulevard.

Services available at the current VA facilities, including audiology, ophthalmology, rheumatology, urology, podiatry, respiratory therapy, pain management, physical therapy, dental, speech pathology and orthopedics, will be moved to the Williamson Boulevard site.

Bigger and bigger

The project's developer, Carnegie Management & Development Corp., Westlake, Ohio, in 2019 estimated the cost to build the new VA clinic would be more than $60 million.

The Daytona Beach VA serves 30,000 veterans in the Volusia County area, with a staff of about 340, Robinson said. Twenty years ago, when the current clinic was dedicated at 551 National Health Care Drive near Dunn Avenue, The News-Journal reported it had 93 full-time employees.

Of the 1,118 outpatient VA clinics in the United States, Daytona Beach is the 34th largest but had the 14th highest workload, Robinson said.

"In the last year, for instance, we have ...taken on 2,700 additional veterans who are assigned to our clinic," Robinson said.

"We've absolutely outgrown the (Chappell) facility and as you may know, there's been parking issues," she said. "The new facility will have 750 parking places, so we won't have any parking issues.

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Healthcare for American veterans

Retired Brig. Gen. Ernie Audino, district director for Congressman Michael Waltz, provided some perspective.

"I like to compare what we offer our veterans to some of what I've seen elsewhere in the world. There are plenty of people who like to throw barbs and criticize ... but no one's perfect," Audino said. "Guess what?. Go to some of these other places in the world, places that are so much less fortunate than us, and see what they're able to do for their veterans."

For Audino, that happened in 2006, in Iraq, where he visited a Kurdish fighter who had been injured and was in a hospital. He said the building appeared to be unsound with cracks in the walls and the families of the injured and sick had to provide their own linen.

Audino turned his focus back on the Daytona Beach VA clinic, which will have 106,826 square feet of usable space and more than 130,000 square feet total, providing primary care, mental health, specialty services, and support services such as radiology and lab.

"This facility here would be an impossible dream in 90% of the world," Audino said. "We have made a commitment to our veterans who have made a commitment to this country. Our veterans have, as we frequently say, written a blank check up to and including the full measure, to this country."

Robinson said that expanded capacity will provide 11 conference rooms for groups, health education classes and meetings — a significant upgrade from the two at the current clinic.

Rustom Khouri, vice president of Carnegie Management, said the building will be a "living and breathing monument that reflects the immense gratitude that we have for our American heroes."

The property's design will include spaces for veterans to take walks "in a serene setting to find peace," he said. Gardens and benches will also be added to the 78-acre site.

"It is about the veterans and improving their experience," Khouri said. "Ultimately, improving the experience and the healthcare outcomes that occur within this clinic is our true measure of success."

Timothy Cooke, director/CEO of the Orlando VA Healthcare System, said he used to take his father, an infantryman who fought in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, to VA appointments several decades ago.

"I got to participate in what care looked like back in those days," he said, "and I am so very proud to say how far we've come and the direction that we're headed. It's no surprise, though, because we've had such a turn in the way we appreciate what our veterans do."

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This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona Beach's new VA multispecialty clinic could be open by 2024