HealthFriday, November 6
Work starts on a Kennewick VA clinic that could mean fewer drives to Walla Walla
The Good Day Walla Walla team
If you know a veteran who makes the drive to the Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial VA Medical Center in Walla Walla, this one's for them. The VA held a groundbreaking Thursday at 3811 Plaza Way in Kennewick for a two-story, 100,000-square-foot clinic that will replace the smaller Richland one.
The new Kennewick clinic will be more than 10 times the size of Richland's
Floor area of the new Kennewick VA clinic, beside places you know
21 basketball courts would fit inside the new Kennewick VA clinic
Source: Tri-City Herald
View as table
| Floor area | |
|---|---|
| The new Kennewick VA clinic | 100,000 sq. ft. |
| The Richland VA clinic today | 9,000 sq. ft. |
| A football field | 57,600 sq. ft. (end zones included) |
| A basketball court | 4,700 sq. ft. (NBA size) |
The clinic will add pharmacy, prosthetics, laboratory, dental, audiology, optometry and radiology services, plus home-based primary care and support for homeless veterans. It's expected to expand access to care for more than 5,000 veterans in the area.
- First patients: early 2029
- Builder: general contractor Ryan Companies
- Richland clinic grows from 9,000 to 15,000 square feet in December
Today, a veteran needing care the Tri-Cities clinic doesn't offer may face a drive to Walla Walla that can take anywhere from an hour and 15 minutes to three hours, depending on traffic and road conditions.
The Kennewick VA clinic by the numbers
- $48.2 million
- in federal funding for the clinic
- 160
- new hires, plus staff from the Richland clinic
- 65,000
- patient visits at the Richland clinic last year
Sources: Tri-City Herald, AppleValleyNewsNow.com
Sources: Tri-City Herald, TriYakNews.com, AppleValleyNewsNow.com