VA Clinic Answer For Brick, Toms River By Sept. 30, Kim Says

BRICK, NJ — Town officials in Brick and Toms River should get an answer on the new location of a Veterans Affairs health clinic by the end of September.

U.S. Rep. Andy Kim, whose 3rd Congressional District includes Brick and Toms River, met with officials from the VA last week and toured the existing James J. Howard VA Outpatient Clinic, which has been serving veterans in Ocean, Monmouth and Burlington counties since the early 1990s.

It originally expected to serve roughly 5,000 veterans when it was built in 1991; it currently has more than 10,000 active patients, Kim said.

“(The VA is) saying they expect to select a site by the end of the fiscal year,” Kim said by telephone. The federal fiscal year ends Sept. 30. Kim said VA officials said construction would begin by the end of 2019. The new facility would open in 2021.

Officials from Toms River and Brick have been vying to have the new 60,000-square-foot clinic built in their towns. But the process has been slow; first approved in 2015, the award of a new clinic was put on hold when the initial bids came back significantly higher than anticipated.

The process to solicit bids started over in April 2018, said Steve Piork, of the VA’s public affairs office, after a change in leadership overseeing construction and facilities. “(The new management is) taking a number of steps to rebuild trust, improve performance and provide better value for veterans and taxpayers.”

Kim, who had previously toured the Brick clinic in February, was joined last week by Dr. Joan McInerney, VA network director for New York and New Jersey, along with additional VA staff and the leaders of local veterans organizations, including Robert Michalski and Nat Amadeo of Brick Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8867 and David Corbin from George P. Vanderveer American Legion Post 129. The timeline was an improvement from Kim's February information, which had been that the bid award might happen in 2020.

In addition to the update on the timeline for a new clinic, Kim said the clinic has hired new physicians to start to bring its staffing levels up, which will help it address some of the problems of lengthy delays in care.

He also spent time listening to the veterans who are patients at the clinic and hearing their stories of frustrations with the system, which starts with the woeful lack of parking at the current clinic on Jack Martin Boulevard.

Kim said the parking issue is a huge one that can lead to veterans not obtaining care, because having to walk even a block can be physically difficult or even impossible for some veterans.

"I had to park a block away down on the side of the street," Kim said. "It's not a big deal for me, but it's a real problem for our veterans."

The limitations of the current facility, in both availability of services and the length of time it takes to get appointments, also are significant issues.

“They are getting some care there,” Kim said of the Brick clinic. “But they are worried because of the magnitude of the number of veterans and the inability to keep up with the demand.”

“Appointments have been canceled, they wait long periods for appointments,” he said. Having McInerney on site gave her the opportunity to hear directly from the veterans who are most affected, Kim said.

The new facility will include expanded services, including a state-of-the-art CAT scan machine and more mental health services aimed at assisting veterans struggling with depression and other psychological issues after they return from a combat area.

There will still be some issues that veterans will have to travel to East Orange to have addressed.

"It’s not going to be a full hospital, but this will expand the care they can get right here in Ocean County," Kim said.

"This meeting was a step in the right direction," said Corbin, of American Legion Post 129. "Obviously the proof is in the pudding going forward. It is nice to know that someone is concerned and that they'd like to do something. The congressman is interested enough to say, 'I want to do whatever I can to assist and help.' Really that’s what you want, someone to care and someone that’s willing to help."

"It is good to see a congressman getting fully engaged to this level and reaching out to the local veteran leadership in the area to find the ground truth of what's going well and what’s not going well," said Amadeo of the Brick VFW. "Everyone is coming away with a positive opinion knowing that there are these three problems (parking, lack of providers and timeline) and we are working to a resolution on them."

Kim said that while McInerney and the other regional VA staff didn’t have specifics on which town will end up receiving the clinic award or the timeline — the decisions are being made by VA leadership in Washington — at least the VA regional staff was able to see and hear first-hand what some of the concerns are for the veterans living with the current care situation.

Brick Township officials have been hoping the VA will keep the clinic in Brick; two proposals were submitted for sites in the township, including the 10-acre parcel that is just down the road from Ocean Medical Center and already zoned for medical purposes.

In Toms River, officials have been trying to convince the VA to bring the new clinic to a piece of property on Hooper Avenue that is near the current Ocean County Veterans Services offices. The property, at Caudina Avenue, is aimed to accommodate a new U.S. Post Office, which officials have been supporting as part of efforts to redevelop the downtown area.

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