Veterans Affairs executives, local officials and veterans gathered in Millington on Friday to formally celebrate a new VA clinic that, despite the ribbon-cutting ceremony, has quietly been open and treating patients since June 1. The facility at 4963 West Union Road has already served more than 3,500 veterans, according to VA officials.
The ribbon-cutting, held Friday, marked the official unveiling of a clinic that reporting places at either 37,000 square feet, per the Daily Memphian, or nearly 34,000 square feet, according to WMC Action News 5. The Daily Memphian reports the project cost $10.1 million, while an earlier planning report from Tennessee Town & City had pegged the facility at $25 million and 45,000 square feet when it broke ground — figures that have not been reconciled with the numbers cited at Friday's event.
Whatever its final size, the clinic is designed to bring a wide range of care closer to home for veterans across the region. WMC Action News 5 reports the facility provides primary care, mental health services, women's healthcare, audiology, a clinical pharmacy, laboratory services, telehealth and other outpatient care, all organized around what the Daily Memphian describes as a patient aligned care team layout.
Fifty Exam Rooms and Room to Grow
Bob Brooks, chief of clinical operations at the Memphis VA Medical Center, said the clinic includes 50 exam rooms, per the Daily Memphian. VA officials indicated the facility isn't finished growing either in scope or specialty.
“We're going to expand as the clinic grows to add more specialties,” according to the same WMC Action News 5 report, which named cardiology, endocrinology and rheumatology as services the VA intends to add over time. The station also reported plans for diagnostic radiology, with an official saying, “we will have diagnostic radiology as well so people can have X-rays here and not have to go to our main site.”
A Regional Push for Veteran Care
Edward Payton, executive director of VA Memphis, spoke at the ceremony about the clinic's role in expanding access for veterans throughout the region, the station reported. The Millington opening follows a broader pattern of VA facility expansion across Tennessee — in April, the VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System and Carnegie Management and Development Corporation announced development plans and a site location for a new Clarksville Multi-Specialty VA Clinic, according to a Department of Veterans Affairs announcement.
When it broke ground, the Millington project was described by Tennessee Town & City as the largest clinic of its kind in Tennessee, with plans at the time calling for 50 exam rooms. The number of exam rooms now cited by VA officials at the Memphis VA Medical Center matches that early projection, even as the project's overall size and cost remain described differently across reports.
For now, the Millington clinic stands as one more piece of VA's expanding outpatient footprint in West Tennessee, already serving thousands of veterans months before its official ribbon-cutting and with additional specialty and diagnostic services still to come, according to officials quoted by WMC Action News 5.
