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East Meadow clinic offers wide range of services
Three years ago, a community outpatient clinic for veterans opened at the Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow. The 11,000-square-foot space, in the hospital’s Building Q, offers primary care and mental health services. The hospital lends the space to the county rent-free.
The clinic, formerly in Plainview, was 14 years in the making, said Norma Gonsalves, a Democrat from East Meadow and the presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature, whose 13th District encompasses the hospital. The next closest veterans’ clinic is the Northport Medical Center, the East Meadow clinic’s parent facility.
The clinics are run by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which has facilities across the country.
Gonsalves said that there was a need for a more centrally located clinic in Nassau County. “As the need for primary care increases, and the fact that we have so many veterans who are aging,” Gonsalves said, “it’s important they have something available for them close by.”
The Plainview clinic was in a state of disrepair, Gonsalves said, and eventually she convinced the Northport Medical Center director, Robert Schuster, to move it to East Meadow. It began offering services on March 29, 2011. The Plainview clinic closed immediately afterward.
Located on the southeast side of the hospital grounds, near the Hempstead Turnpike entrance, the East Meadow clinic has a triage room and 14 exam rooms, with doctors and counselors on hand. Veterans who want to make an appointment at the East Meadow clinic must call the Northport center, and tell them where they want to go.
The V.A. pays the county $1 to host the clinic, according to Shelley Lotenberg, a NUMC spokeswoman. The Nassau Health Care Corporation, which owns the NUMC, already has a lease with the county for various spaces in the hospital, and does not charge any additional rent for the clinic.
The county’s Veterans Service Agency, which helps process claims for veterans and widows of veterans, such as property tax exemptions and pension benefits, is also headquartered in the NUMC. The agency, which moved in at the same time the clinic did, also coordinates free transportation for veterans who need medical care, in East Meadow or Northport. The agency is currently in need of volunteer drivers, according to its website.
Since the East Meadow clinic opened, Gonsalves said, she has heard only positive feedback from veterans. “I think it’s a home run for our veterans here in Nassau County,” she said. “It is something that was long overdue. But all good things are worth waiting for.”
The one complaint she has heard is about the lack of parking nearby the clinic. This problem was recently resolved, however, Gonsalves said, with the creation of 500 additional parking spots on the hospital grounds, right across from the veterans’ clinic. There are also handicapped parking spots just outside the building.
Other veterans’ centers in Nassau County include a resource center in Hicksville for veterans in need of family, drug and alcohol, or post-traumatic stress disorder counseling. There is another community outreach clinic in Valley Stream.
