On Thursday, the Alaska VA held a veteran town hall, designed to allow feedback from veterans, family members, and other stakeholders in veterans’ healthcare.
Veteran town hall meetings are held quarterly and offered at different times and locations to accommodate as many people as possible. They allowed a frank and open discussion of veterans’ concerns in all VA program areas.
Dr. Timothy D. Ballard, Director of the Alaska VA healthcare system: “We think we’re trying to make significant progress for our Alaskan veterans. We’ve grown our staff from one of the smallest facilities in the country at 550, now up to 700, to help meet veteran needs. In fact, all of our clinics are now completely at-capacity. We are imminently going to get a new lease for our clinic here in Kenai so that we’ll have some new space for that. It should be announced within the next couple of weeks. We’ve very excited about that possibility. But, like I said, we’re really trying to do what we can to improve access for veterans in Alaska since we’re so restricted in regards to health resources.”
Dr. Ballard also discussed other tools the VA is utilizing to improve the user-experience for Alaska’s veterans: “We’ve added something called a one-stop-shop. So, you can dial (907) 257-5463 during our business hours, and we’ve got staff standing by. It won’t be a voicemail unless they’re all busy, but we’ve got staff standing by to answer veteran questions.”
VA representatives were also available after the town hall to assist veterans personally with questions or issues related to their individual claims. For more information, call the Alaska VA healthcare system at (907) 257-5460.
