Cape VA clinic ranks in top 10 in U.S. from patient survey

The Veterans Administration Community Clinic in Cape Girardeau has ranked in the top 10 in the country, according to a VA patient satisfaction survey that gauges health-care accessibility including efficiency, the quality of care and the ability to get treatment quickly.

The VA outpatient clinic at 2400 Veterans Memorial Drive ranked 10th out of more than 700 such clinics in the country, said Dewayne Coleman, a spokesman for the John J. Pershing Veterans Hospital in Poplar Bluff, Mo., which oversees the local clinic.

But Coleman said it didn't come as a surprise.

"We know that Cape Girardeau has a good clinic because we work with them every day," Coleman said. "It's well staffed, and they do a good job."

The survey is a recurring patient satisfaction survey that the VA does nationally, Coleman said. Patients surveyed at the clinic said that appointments are easily available, access to the clinic is good and that the distance people have to travel to get to the clinic was reasonable.

Coleman said the ranking was an honor.

"The top 10 out of 700 plus," he said. "That's not a small number to be competing with, not that it's a competition."

The Cape Girardeau clinic is one of four community clinics run by the medical center; the others are in Paragould, Ark., West Plains, Mo., and Farmington, Mo. He said the clinic here is the busiest of the four.

In fiscal 2004, the clinic treated 3,315 patients who made 13,805 visits that year.

The clinic has two full-time primary care physicians, a registered nurse practitioner, two registered nurses, two license practical nurses and two administrative staff. A psychiatrist visits the clinic once a week, he said.

Coleman said that the local clinic was built by the state and staffed by the VA, a collaboration that has become a model for other clinics throughout the state.

smoyers@semissourian.com

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