Renovations at Fresno's VA Hospital | ABC30 Fresno

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By ABC30

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Fresno, CA For decades this space was a cramped emergency department at Fresno's VA Hospital. It's rebirth in the 21st century got underway a month and half ago.

Increasing number of younger vets brought larger budgets to VA health systems allowing for such upgrades.

The new $12 million in stimulus dollars will be used a little differently it will fund upgrades of other areas of the older facility to replace old heating, ventilation and air-conditioning and to replace aging cooling towers and boilers.

Budgeted items over the next two years will dramatically change this landscape. A new mental health building will rise here. Another will be for rehab and prosthetics all designed with the needs of today's vets in mind.

The budgeted 30 million dollars over several years will yield:

New ER
A New Cardiac Catheter Lab
A New Outpatient Clinic in Oakhurst
Double the size of Clinic in Atwater-Merced
A New Mental Health Building
Rehabilitation and Prosthetics Area
A New 2-level Parking Structure
Additional nurses at outlying clinics

This will serve older veterans and those who are serving today. Fresno VA's newly remolded emergency department is expected to be open around the end of this year. They say it will be start of the art in emergency medicine.