The US Department of Veterans Affairs announces a new partnership with Omaha-Neb-based nonprofit Veterans Ambulatory Center Development Corporation (VACDC), as a way to better meet veterans’ needs while saving taxpayer dollars.
Rather than moving forward with an out-of-date plan developed in 2011 to build a $560 million facility, the VA instead pursued the partnership with VACDC to build an ambulatory care center (ACC) at the current Omaha VA Medical Center campus.
The new center will cost approximately $86 million, and will be funded via $56 million of the appropriated funds for the original project, along with nearly $30 million in donations from VACDC.
“This trailblazing project represents another example of the bold changes happening at VA,” says Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin, in a media release.
“This project will lay the groundwork for future public-private partnerships aimed at providing veterans access to state-of-the-art facilities and will significantly improve the quality of care we are able to provide to our nation’s veterans.”
This project is the first of five pilot projects nationwide that will be built under the new innovated donation authority concept authorized by the Communities Helping Invest through Property and Improvements Needed for Veterans Act of 2016 (CHIP IN for Vets Act), per the release.
[Source: US Department of Veterans Affairs]
