New VA facility would adjoin medical school

Courtesy of UMass Medical School An aerial image shows the location of the proposed VA research annex on Belmont Street.

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By Emily Micucci

(UPDATED Nov. 12 at 2:30 p.m.) The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the University of Massachusetts Medical School announced plans to build a new treatment facility in a partnership designed to expand health care access to veterans.

The VA Central Western Massachusetts Health Care System (VACWM), the region’s VA health care services organization, and UMMS said at a press conference Tuesday that they’ve submitted a joint-venture proposal to the VA Central Office. It includes a new 100,000-square-foot building that would potentially replace the VA’s Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) on Lincoln Street.

The project would expand access to care for veterans and their families in primary care, mental health, women’s health and pediatrics, UMMS said. The proposal has not yet been approved by the VA Central Office, as a final review is still ongoing, according to UMMS. The school would construct the building and lease it the VACWM.

UMMS says there is a pressing need for increased access in Worcester, as the existing 25,000-square-foot CBOC is too small to accommodate the area veteran population, which UMMS estimated includes about 50,000 people. That’s why the VA provides limited specialty services in Worcester, which means veterans have to drive an hour or more to have some of their health care needs met, the school said.

A separate project planned the by UMMS and VACWM will create a 15,000-square-foot research annex in existing space at the UMass Medicine Science Park, next to the medical school. The project, also announced Tuesday, has received approval and will house audiology, optometry, and podiatry clinics as well as an expanded research program in collaboration with the school.

The research annex will be located next to the UMMS campus on Belmont Street (Route 9), now the site of the local Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) headquarters.

According to Gov. Deval Patrick, who participated in Tuesday’s press conference via conference call, the state would relocate the District 3 headquarters to a nearby site on Plantation Parkway, that is controlled by UMMS.

“Massachusetts is proud to support our veterans, and this land swap agreement between MassDOT and the University of Massachusetts Medical School will pave the way for a truly state of the art VA facility that will provide the care our veterans deserve,” Patrick said in a statement provided Wednesday by UMMS.

(Note: This story was updated to more accurately describe the two projects proposed by UMMS and VACWM after initial publication on the morning of Nov. 12)