New North Aurora VA clinic opens just in time
Returning troops, aging vets, lousy economy cause jump in need for services
NORTH AURORA — At first glance, the patients seated in the waiting room of the new medical clinic on Route 31 look like a cross-section of any doctor's practice.
Youngsters just out of high school watch TV alongside white-haired men in wheelchairs. Wives make their husbands comfortable in the plush chairs, and a priest reads a theology book while waiting for the nurse to call his name.
Youngsters just out of high school watch TV alongside white-haired men in wheelchairs. Wives make their husbands comfortable in the plush chairs, and a priest reads a theology book while waiting for the nurse to call his name.
But the elderly man checking in at the desk is wearing a hat with "NAVY" stitched into the brim and a jacket blazoned "U.S.S. Graffias" — the ship he served on during World War II.
(Marianne Mather/Staff Photographer)
• Fact box: By the numbers
• Related: A place to talk
• Where: 161 S. Lincolnway, North Aurora
• Hours: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays
• Information: 630-859-2504
• 31,000: Veterans in the far west suburbs
• 2,900: Patient visits to Aurora VA clinic in 2008
• 3,100: Patient visits to Aurora VA clinic by the end of August 2009
"About 60 percent of veterans are diabetic, partly because they're getting older and also because exposure to Agent Orange caused a lot of Vietnam veterans to become diabetic," said charge nurse Cynthia Bourguignon.
"We offer classes on diabetes management and nutrition counseling, and they're very popular."
Support groups for victims of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder are also starting up at the clinic.
— Denise Linke, For Sun-Times MediaBut the elderly man checking in at the desk is wearing a hat with "NAVY" stitched into the brim and a jacket blazoned "U.S.S. Graffias" — the ship he served on during World War II.
A few of the younger men wear camouflage T-shirts; One sports a military insignia tattoo on his arm. And the priest still has a crewcut left over from his days as an Army chaplain in Iraq.
These patients, along with an estimated 31,000 other veterans living in the far west suburbs, got an early Veterans Day present last month when Hines Veterans Administration Hospital moved its Aurora outpatient clinic from a cramped, aging building surrounded by factories to this 9,975-square-foot facility in the heart of North Aurora's downtown retail corridor.
The new building at 161 S. Lincolnway offers three times as much space as the previous one and will allow the VA clinic to add new services and offer remote consultations, said clinical nurse manager Cecile Bourguignon.
"This place is great. I love it," said World War II infantryman George Tugana of West Chicago. "It's easier to get to (than the old clinic), there's a lot more parking and it's a much nicer building."
Rising demand
The clinic's October opening didn't come a minute too soon, Bourguignon added. The recession and a swell of recently returned soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan have combined to bring more veterans to VA facilities than ever.
The Aurora clinic handled 2,900 patient visits in 2008; by the end of this August it had already seen more than 3,100 patients.
"Because of the economy, many veterans don't have jobs or health insurance, so they're coming here for medical treatment," Bourguignon said.
"Also, our Korean War and Vietnam War veterans are aging, so they're starting to need more care, and we still have a lot of World War II veterans — particularly in the rural areas. We were starting to get seriously overcrowded."
The new facility offers more exam and treatment rooms for the three doctors who staff it full time, plus nutritionists, social workers and other specialists who come in once or twice a week. It boasts an atrium where patients and staff can relax under potted trees.
Treatment from afar
Paradoxically, it also contains several rooms that allow doctors to treat patients remotely so that only one of them has to be at the clinic.
"We now have three teleconference rooms, whereas in the old building we only had one," noted charge nurse Cynthia Orebaugh. "These rooms allow patients to come in and consult with specialists at Hines with face-to-face video conference equipment, so that they don't have to drive to Maywood (where Hines is located) and the doctors don't have to drive out here."
Orebaugh said that Hines psychiatrist Dr. George Paniotte in the past came to the former Aurora clinic once a week and had eight hours of appointments booked "and a backlog of patients waiting to get an appointment."
The teleconference rooms at the new clinic allow Paniotte to "see patients here every day without leaving the hospital." White-noise generators outside each teleconference room ensure patient privacy at the clinic, while dedicated lines and firewalls keep hackers from accessing patients' medical data, she added.
The clinic also offers an online system that lets patients with chronic medical conditions log their weight, blood pressure, blood sugar levels and other routine test results online for nurses to monitor, rather than coming in for weekly tests.
And the VA is hiring several teams, each including a doctor, nurse and social worker, to make house calls to patients who can't easily leave their homes.
"We had to make more patients come into the old clinic because we didn't have any office space for home visit staff to work out of," Bourguignon said. "This program will help us reach many more people."
Personal service
The new location and extra services aren't the only reasons veterans are flocking to the clinic on Route 31.
"These people do a great service," said Korean War veteran Roger Hicks of Wheaton. "The only complaint I ever had was when they called me off the golf course to come in the day after I'd had my blood tests because my potassium level was too high. That made me mad, but it shows how efficient they are."
"There's nothing I need at Hines that I can't get here more quickly and easily," said the Rev. Paul Weberg, a Benedictine priest and theology teacher at Marmion Academy in Aurora. "I get my preventative medicine services here. It's a great thing for a lot of veterans because it's a more personal, non-threatening atmosphere. Since Aurora is the second-biggest city in Illinois, it makes sense to have a VA clinic out here."
Some veterans even come to the clinic for emergency care, even though most of them end up transferring to an area hospital.
"Some of the vets don't feel comfortable going to the emergency room, so they come here because they're familiar with us," Bourguignon explained. "We treat them and stabilize them, then if they need further care we call the North Aurora Fire Department and send them by ambulance to an area hospital. We send their medical records along with them so the ER doctors can help them better."
Between the added in-house services, teleconferencing and home visits, clinic staff hope to help a lot more area veterans, said medical director Dr. Poonsri Keomuan.
"Hopefully, we can offer more services here so that patients don't have to drive to Maywood or just not get care at all. Having more room here is encouraging more of the patients I refer here to actually come in for treatment," she said.
