Rep. Dennis Kucinich

Washington, Nov 10, 2008 -

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today announced that the City of Parma has been selected by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for construction of a new VA Outpatient Clinic.  The announcement was made today at a press conference with Parma Mayor DePiero and the Director of the Cleveland VA Medical Center, William Montague.

“I am pleased to announce that a new VA Clinic will be built in Parma the day before our nation honors all veterans on Veteran’s day,” stated Kucinich.

The 67,000 square foot outpatient clinic will be built to VA specifications at 8701 Brookpark Road, Parma, OH  44129.  The clinic is expected to see over 20,000 unique veteran patients with over 125,000 outpatient visits.  The clinic will bring 151 jobs to Parma (including the transfer of 130 employees from the Brecksville Division). The clinic is expected to be completed by the spring of 2010.

“Director Montague looked at the national map and saw that the trend at the VA was to consolidate hospitals which were geographically close.  Instead of waiting for the hammer to fall on one of the local VA hospitals (Brecksville or Wade Park), he took the proactive step of alerting the local congressional delegation of his concerns and sought help in finding a way to consolidate the hospital facilities without sacrificing service to our nation’s veterans in the Cleveland area.

“I shared Director Montague’s concerns about not sacrificing service to the veterans and recommended that if the Brecksville and Wade Park facilities were to be consolidated at Wade Park, we would still need a way to serve the veterans who live in the suburbs for outpatient care.  We agreed that an outpatient facility in Parma would meet that need,” stated Kucinich.

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