After over a decade of advocacy, new Columbus VA clinic holds grand opening ceremony

After opening its doors to patients on July 11, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Friday for the new Robert S. Poydasheff VA Clinic in Columbus.

Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough took part in the ceremony alongside U.S. Congressman Sanford Bishop, local elected officials and members of local veteran organizations. McDonough's visit to the Columbus area will help assess how President Biden's Unity Agenda can help improve local operations, according to a news release from Bishop's office.

Veterans have fought for a new medical clinic in Columbus for over ten years, retired Army colonel John House told the Ledger-Enquirer.The clinic, located at 6910 River Road, will replace the Community Based Outpatient Clinic on 13th Avenue.

"It's about time we received a new and larger clinic than what we've had," House said. "This is very important."

"So, there are three facilities that are serving the veterans in this area that will allow them to have the services they need," Bishop said. "They paid the price for the freedoms that we enjoy."

VA facilities in the Columbus area include Fort Benning, Comer Avenue and now River Road.

There is a vibrant veteran community in Georgia, McDonough said, that helped get the new VA clinic built in Columbus.

"We are — as a strategy — trying to get more care closer to veterans," he said. "So, the idea behind Community-Based outpatient clinics like this is that they get into communities where there are a lot of veterans."

INCREASING RESOURCES AND PROVIDERS

The new clinic will bring some additional services and resources to veterans in Columbus, House said, including more specialty providers than what has been available in the past.

One of those specialties is podiatry, House said, which was especially important for the retired colonel because of his own bad feet.

"I'm just surprised that with an installation that relies on feet that the VA never put a VA podiatrist here," House said. "So, that's one of the specialties that we're going to have, and I know that guy's gonna be worked hard."

The new clinic will also provide dental care and optometry, veteran Jay Wilkoff told the L-E, which the 13th Avenue clinic did not have. "I think it will draw veterans to the clinic that have not used the VA facilities before," he said.

McDonough said, "It has a dedicated wing for women veterans care," and there are already 4,000 women veterans utilizing that facility.

"But there are tens of thousands of veterans in this region," he said. "And so those who are not yet in our care, please reach out to them."

In the past, the VA has focused mostly on men, House said, because mostly men served. But that's changed over time.

With more treatment available for women at the VA, Greg Jordan, chairman of the Plummer Home, believes the clinic will help his organization better serve homeless veterans who are women. The Plummer Home helps to support and find housing for homeless veterans in the Columbus area.

Having more specialty providers in Columbus will mean veterans won't have to go to Tuskegee, Montgomery or Atlanta to get treatment, Retired Lt. Col. MacDonald Plummer told the L-E.

"(The clinic) won't have everything," Plummer said. "But then no hospital has everything here. But they're bringing so much more than they ever had before."

ENSURING THE CLINIC IS ACCESSIBLE

There was pushback from Columbus veterans about the clinic location in north Columbus even as construction was underway. Local veterans organizations argued that poor and marginalized veterans who don't live in north Columbus will have difficulty accessing services.

While Wilkoff is glad the new VA clinic is opening, he shared he was disappointed by the location. A medical facility should be placed at a site that is easily accessible to the majority of the veteran population, he said, and Green Island Hills – the neighborhood the clinic is near – is not easily accessible.

The lack of transparency in the decision-making process regarding the location was upsetting, House said.

"That was very frustrating to me, as a veteran and as an elected official," he said. "I could not find out how they were making the decision and why they decided to go where they went."

METRA Transit System created a demand response transportation service to shuttle individuals to and from the VA clinic in north Columbus. Appointment-only trips can be scheduled with METRA 1-7 days in advance, and will cost $2.50 each way.

The service can be scheduled by calling 706-225-4581 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

METRA is doing all it can do to make things easier, House said.

The VA is also running a shuttle service, and the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System posted a schedule of the services on Facebook.

Veterans who need transportation and live farther away have earned the benefits provided by the new clinic, McDonough said, and the shuttle service will help provide them with access to the care. If this is not enough, he said, then additional services will be added.

The clinic was named after former Columbus mayor and veteran Colonel Robert "Bob" S. Poydasheff, after legislation co-sponsored by Bishop and U.S. Representative Drew Ferguson (R-GA) passed last year.

Poydasheff passed away in 2020, but his family, including son Robert Poydasheff, Jr., attended the ceremony.

Poydasheff, Sr., left behind a legacy of advocating for veterans in Columbus, and led the fight to get a new VA clinic in the area. Unlike other institutions that are named after people who provide large donations, Poydasheff, Jr. said, this clinic holds his father's name because of what he accomplished in his life.

"His legacy for you and I — and the people who knew him — is really that of a man who loved people," Poydasheff, Jr. said. "Who loved his family. Who loved you, his friends. And who loved his soldiers."