Construction done on VA center in Spotsy, prepares for spring opening (2024)

The Department of Veterans Affairs has “got the keys” to the new Fredericksburg Health Care Center. The work is finished, and its new tenants are ready to move in. The VA now begins the process of furnishing, staffing and installing equipment for the over 450,000-square-foot facility that is scheduled to open in spring 2025.

Once operational the center will provide a variety of services to veterans from Fredericksburg and the surrounding area. Veterans will be able to come to the center for specialty clinics, outpatient surgery, mental health or substance abuse treatment, physical or occupational therapy, and a plethora of other services. Some of these services are already available to veterans through the area’s three clinics which will be subsumed into the center. Others amount to an expansion of care offered.

Sandy Markert, assistant director of the Central Virginia VA Health Care System, said the veteran population in the area has expanded exponentially in recent decades. She said that there was already talk about a need for expansion when she joined the VA in 2006.

“With the staff that we have at the three sites ... we have outgrown the space,” Markert said. “We can’t really get any more new veterans there, but we keep getting requests for new veteran patient appointments.”

Veteran services have also expanded under the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxins Act or PACT Act. The bill, which was signed into law in 2022, makes it easier for veterans with existing injuries to get dental care. Dental services will be a part of the new center.

The Fredericksburg Health Care Center will be the VA’s largest leased outpatient center and will see an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 veterans enrolled. The center will allow the VA to provide specialists and services in areas where veterans previously had to be referred elsewhere in the community.

“It’s better for the veteran if we can coordinate the care within the VA because their records are with us,” Markert said. “It’s a lot harder for us to coordinate when the veteran goes out to the community, because we have to get those records back. We have to verify what’s needed ... So, it’s always more seamless if we can provide that care within the VA.”

The center sits on a tract of land between U.S. 1 and Interstate 95 in Spotsylvania County. An immense parking lot surrounds the facility, accompanied by verdant landscaping including therapeutic garden and a gravel walking path. Markert said these features reflect the VA’s commitment to a whole health policy by allowing a space for patients and employees to exercise and relax.

The facility, which broke ground in 2021, was developed by Carnegie Management and Development Corporation which will lease the building to the government for at least 20 years. The cost of the contract to develop the center was over $346 million.

The center is set to open in March, but enrollment has already begun. Markert is encouraging veterans to sign up. Within a few weeks, construction contractors will be out of the building and the VA’s own teams will be in to prepare the center to start providing services.

The first floor will include primary care offices, a lab, a pharmacy, a women’s clinic, a canteen and store, and an office where veterans can consult VA workers about eligibility and transfer medical records. Also on the first floor, there will be a space where veterans can volunteer to help sort donations from the community such as clothes, food and toiletries, and the offices of veteran service organizations. The second floor will have more primary care offices, mental health and substance abuse counseling, and specialists. The third floor will house outpatient surgery. The dental and eye clinic will be on the fourth.

The VA has not yet received access to the radiology unit which is still under construction. Markert said it will open for services shortly after the rest of the center.

What specialists are provided will be partially dependent on what clinicians the center can hire, Markert said. She said the VA is working hard to hire at least part-time clinicians to fill all needed specialties.

After clinicians are hired, then the process of hiring support staff will begin. The center will employ just under a 1,000 people. Some of these employees will come from Fredericksburg’s current clinics, but the vast majority will have to be new hires. Markert said they will soon be looking for nurses, technicians, supply chain support staff, food service workers and administration staff. The center will even include a unit of the VA police. Markert said in the coming months local jobseekers can look for employment opportunities on USAjobs.gov.