February 21, 2019
VA breaks ground on training center project
Ground was broken Thursday for a new, state-of-the-art learning resource center on the campus of the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center in Poplar Bluff, which, officials believe, will be completed in the spring of 2020. The initial request for the project dates back to 2015 and will replace an existing house on the property, said Medical Center Director Dr. Patricia Hall...
Ground was broken Thursday for a new, state-of-the-art learning resource center on the campus of the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center in Poplar Bluff, which, officials believe, will be completed in the spring of 2020.
The initial request for the project dates back to 2015 and will replace an existing house on the property, said Medical Center Director Dr. Patricia Hall.
“Today’s technology for education and training far exceeds what this building can accomplish,” Hall said, “so we’ve been granted a new project.”
The $2.5 million facility, Hall said, “will also offer a complete simulation center that not only our facility will use for our educators, but also other health care partners and schools we’re affiliated with.”
Besides staff and student training, Hall said, the new building, at 5,300 square feet, “will provide us a large space where we can do veteran training as well.”
As the medical center’s Chief of Staff, Dr. Donald Gagliano is excited to see the learning center come to fruition.
“Education and training, I think, is an underpinning of how we’re going to make medicine and health care better. This learning center will give us a chance to perfect our skills and to bring together the team collaborations we always depend on,” he said.
“Everything we do is about trying to do it right, and in order to get it right, you have to have ways for people to learn,” Gagliano added.
Congressman Jason Smith attended Thursday’s ceremony, and praised Veterans Health Administration efforts to improve veteran services locally.
“Any day that money taxpayers have paid in Southeast Missouri comes back for an investment here is a good day, especially when the money is being used to provide better care and services for our veterans,” Smith said. “We’re pretty excited about a couple million dollars coming back here to be invested in Butler County.”
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