South Texas Veterans Health Care center opens its doors

HARLINGEN — Juan Gabriel Montalvo will no longer need to travel to San Antonio when he needs to see a doctor.

Montalvo, from San Benito, was one of the first veterans to visit the new South Texas Veterans Health Care System center that opened Nov. 19 in Harlingen.

Montalvo, 25, is an Army veteran of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and said he decided to visit the facility to see a psychiatrist.

“This is the best thing that’s happened in the Valley because I would have not gone to San Antonio, and I would’ve dealt with my own problems,” Montalvo said. “I’m glad that they opened this (center).”

Montalvo said that more veterans will be able to get medical attention without the expense of a trip to San Antonio.

Larry Alva, the center’s administrative officer, said the new facility has been a long time coming. This facility is first phase of a three-phase project.

The center will offer expanded specialty care for the more than 20,000 Rio Grande Valley veterans who qualify for medical attention, Alva said.

Specialty services at the center include radiology, ophthalmology, optometry, audiology, physical therapy, dental, mental health and laboratory, Alva said.

The 34,000 square-foot facility is about 22,000 square feet larger than the previous Harlingen veterans facility, according to a STVHCS press release.

There are 132 examination rooms and 65 full- or part-time medial professionals, Alva said.

Phase two, which Alva said will start in December, will add more special services like dermatology and orthopedics and contract with private medical facilities to meet patients’ needs. Phase three, which will start in December 2010, calls for a 125,000 square-foot outpatient surgical center, he added.

The center will bring about 500 patients per day to Harlingen when the first two phases are completed. The surgical center in phase three will be able to meet another 500 veterans’ needs daily, Alva said.

“I’m very, very excited,” Alva, an Air Force veteran, said. “I’ve worked with a lot of veterans and veterans organizations in the Valley to address the issues with healthcare.”

Mayor Chris Boswell said expanding the health care industry is an important objective in the community and hopes to see the center grow into a “virtual hospital.”

Alva said that a 2002 VA survey determined that there were shortfalls in veteran specialty care in the Rio Grande Valley, and that’s what sparked the efforts for this facility.

“A lot of the travel to San Antonio was for specialty care,” Alva said. “This facility will reduce (travel) by 95 percent.”

Jose Mendoza Sr., a U.S. Marine Vietnam veteran, visited the center Tuesday for a follow-up check up.

“This (center) will save me the trip to San Antonio,” Mendoza said. “(The VA) gives us a per diem of about $47 but that doesn’t even cover the gas. It was an inconvenience.”

Mendoza said he is happy that he won’t need to travel to San Antonio for minor medical needs, but said he will still have to travel to San Antonio if he ever needs surgery.

“This is a step in the right direction, but once we get a hospital we will be better off,” Mendoza said. “I would like to see a (veterans) hospital in the Valley.”

Alva said the center is not a clinic and although it is not a hospital, the center does offer many of the services that a hospital does.

“The center’s concept is that we have a hospital without beds,” Alva said. “We are trying to provide high-quality health care with our center.”

Alva said he does not know how the facility could affect the efforts of getting a veterans hospital in the Valley, but added that all the veterans he’s spoken to are happy with the center.

Boswell said the center can only help the efforts to get a hospital in the Valley.

“To have the expanded services and the (surgical) facility. It could become a hospital,” Boswell said. “But the more important thing is that the center is going to expand services immediately. If this objective is accomplished, where veterans can seek quality health care and travel less in just three years, it’s better than waiting five to 10 years for a hospital.”

One of the biggest reasons for expanding the veterans center, Alva said, was the concern to improve veterans’ quality of lives and alleviating the physical cost and stress of having to travel so far for medical attention.

The center will also have a positive impact on the economic vitality of the city, Alva said, because veterans coming to the center will eat at local restaurants, shop and possibly stay over night at hotels.

Crisanne Zamponi, executive director for the Harlingen Area Chamber of Commerce, agrees and said the chamber has already provided restaurant and visitors guides to be on display at the center’s lobby.

“We are very excited,” Zamponi said. “I think we’re going to see a big impact on the hotels, shopping and restaurants.”

Boswell said the center has already doubled the job offerings and said the chamber and the city will continue to work with the center to accommodate veterans and their families when they visit Harlingen.

Douglas Fahringer, a Korean War veteran and a Winter Texan from New Jersey said he would use the facility during his stay in the Valley through March. Fahringer visited the center Tuesday for a blood test and said he’d return for a dental check up and prescriptions.

“We can get everything right here (at the center. We have everything except hospital beds.

I’ve only seen one section (of the center) but it’s good so far,” Fahringer said. “But they need a hospital down here, especially with the influx of us Winter Texans. There’s so many veterans that have to travel six to seven hours to San Antonio. That’s a lot of traveling.”