BEDFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — The Battle Creek VA Medical Center is celebrating 100 years of serving West Michigan veterans.
The campus opened on October 15, 1924, and became the 100th veterans hospital in the country.
A lot has changed over the past century but the mission of the center to provide care has remained the same.
“It’s invaluable I can’t put a price tag on it,” Ron Sans, a Marine veteran receiving care, said.
He served in the Marines from 2009 to 2013 but the mental toll of his service is still something he deals with every day.
“From here the PTSD therapy has been invaluable, medication management and routine has also proven to be very valuable,” Sans said.
He credits the staff for providing the treatment and support. Many of them are veterans or have extensive experience tailoring care to the veteran population.
“I put in a lot of work in my time here. People will tell you that, but without them meeting me in the middle or wherever they met me at, I wouldn’t have what I have today,” Sans said.
The medical center provides a variety of services including primary and specialized care but is best known for mental health treatment. The center and its affiliated offices see about 45,000 patients every year.
The Battle Creek VA Medical Center has worked to upgrade the facility to provide the most current care.
The campus has been transformed over the past 100 years expanding from the original 22 buildings built to service 500 veterans with a focus on psychiatric care.
“Over that amount of time there have been significant upgrades, especially in the past decade of really having to modernize our infrastructure, modernize the type of clinical offerings that we’re doing,” Brent Larson, facility planner with the Battle Creek VA Medical Center, said.
While the campus may look a little different, the focus is to keep serving veterans for generations to come.
“It’s an honor to be a part of that history, that legacy of caring for veterans,” Kevin Holzinger, a Navy veteran and the executive assistant to the medical center director, said.
He says too often eligible veterans are not receiving services through the VA system. The VA estimates around 45% of people in Michigan who would meet the qualification requirements are not enrolled. Some are not aware they are eligible or are unsure about the quality of care.
“I would encourage every veteran even if you tried in the past to visit the va.gov website. Call, go on the internet, come stop at any one of our five sites of care, check out your eligibility,” Holzinger said.
