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The new Department of Veterans Affairs medical clinic on 12th Street in La Grande has 8,800 square feet and may be completed by the end of May. - Observer photos/DICK MASON

The new Department of Veterans Affairs clinic on 12th Street in La Grande opens in about a month, VA officials told an audience of about 165 Tuesday at the Blue Mountain Conference Center.

The target date for the opening is May 30, said Sharon Helman, director of the Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial VA Medical Center in Walla Walla. 

The clinic will open as soon as its building, being constructed just south of the Blue Mountain Conference Center, is completed. The 8,800-square-foot building has dozens of rooms.

“I wish it was my house, it is gorgeous,’’ said Helman, who along with people such as Oregon U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, has helped lead the effort to get the La Grande VA clinic built.

A flurry of warm spring weather would help construction workers complete finishing touches and continued bad weather will only slow the pace.

“We can’t control Mother Nature,’’ Helman said.

The clinic will provide veterans with primary health care and mental health services. Patients who need speciality health care will be referred to other VA medical centers or community providers, including those at Grande Ronde Hospital, which VA clinic officials are building a partnership with.

The transition process for local veterans now receiving their primary health care at the Walla Walla VA center will be seamless, Helman said.

She said that all such veterans will automatically be transferred to the La Grande clinic. They will have no paperwork to complete. Local veterans, including those in Union and Wallowa counties who get care at the Walla Walla VA, will be receiving letters informing them of their automatic transfer.

Sharon Helman, director of the Jonathan Wainwright Memorial VA Medical Center in Walla Walla, speaks Tuesday about the new veterans medical center that will soon open in La Grande.

The new La Grande VA clinic will employ 10 people including a manager, a physician, three registered nurses, one physician’s assistant, a social worker, a pharmacist and a health technician.

Bob Sherer, an RN, will serve as the clinic manager. Sherer has lived in the La Grande area more than two decades. The clinic’s physician will be Lehlia Stanton, who is now at the Walla Walla’s VA center. Stanton earlier served as a physician for the Elgin Family Health Clinic.

The services offered at the VA clinic will be similar to those one could expect to get from their family general practitioner. Immunizations, treatment for high blood pressure, diabetes and much more will be provided.

Patients need to understand, though, that there will be speciality care limitations, said Jake Shaw, a public affairs specialist at the Walla Walla VA medical center. For example, no optometry or audiology services will be provided at the clinic. Veterans will still have to go to Walla Walla to receive them.

“This is not a hospital or a full-blown speciality care hub,’’ Helman said.

Helman urged all veterans to enroll in the VA health care system. She said those who do will find themselves part of a remarkable network.

“It is the closest thing we have to universal health care,’’ she said.

A major benefit of being in the system is that VA physicians are part of an electronic network which provides medical records quickly. A physician can go to a computer at any VA center and instantly get a patient’s medical records.

For example, a psychiatrist in New York may be preparing to prescribe an anti-depressant but then see that a different type of medication will be necessary because of the high blood pressure medicine another VA doctor in Walla Walla has the patient on.

Bob Sherer, left, Mike Khan, M.D., and Sharon Helman provide information about the new VA clinic Tuesday at the Blue Mountain Conference Center. Sherer, an RN, will serve as the clinic’s manager. Khan is acting chief of staff of the Walla Walla VA Medical Center and Helman is director of the Walla Walla center.

The clinic will be open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Patients coming to the La Grande VA clinic can expect to see a health professional the same day, Helman said. She has long been bothered by the time veterans sometimes have to wait to get into clinics and has taken steps to address this in her VA service area. She said that since January the Walla Walla VA medical center staff has been able to see patients the same day they come in. Staffing changes, including the addition of physicians assistants, are the reason.

The La Grande clinic will provide services exclusively for veterans. Their family members will not be eligible for care although they may qualify for treatment at other VA centers, Shaw said.

Construction of La Grande’s VA clinic started in late October. It is being built on land owned by local businessman and developer Fred Bell, who will lease it to the VA. Bell and his son, Fred Bell Jr., are leading the building’s construction work. Helman knows veterans will be impressed with their final product.

“This clinic is a gift to veterans,’’ Helman said. “It is the least we could do for you.’’