A new state-of-the-art Veterans Affairs (VA) clinic in Kalispell will soon offer increased access to healthcare for Flathead Valley Veterans after a lease was awarded earlier this month for a location near Glacier High School.
The new facility, expected to open in 2025, will utilize the Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT) model, which brings mental health and medical professionals together in one location to treat a patient in a private room instead of sending the patient from office to office. The clinic will have six PACT teams, a dedicated women’s health exam room and an MD on site five days a week.
U.S. Sen, Jon Tester, D-Mont., who chairs the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, recently asked VA Secretary Denis McDonough to speed up delivery of new facilities in Montana, including to the Kalispell clinic.
“This is exciting news for Kalispell-area veterans who can look forward to a new and improved clinic that’ll deliver better access to convenient, quality care,” Tester said in a press release. “I’m proud to have worked with local veterans to secure this new facility for our men and women in uniform who make our country the best in the world. These folks deserve nothing less, and I’ll continue to hold VA accountable in ensuring this important project stays on track and opens its doors as quickly as possible.”
The new clinic will be located on the corner of Reserve Place and Old Reserve Drive. Construction on the new clinic is expected to begin this summer or early fall, according to officials with the Montana VA Health Care System. The facility will be roughly 22,000-square-feet, twice the size of the existing Kalispell clinic.
Veterans seen at the new clinic will have access to primary care, mental healthcare, pharmacy services, social work, dietitian, telehealth, optometry, physical therapy and chiropractic services, as well as travel specialty care providers such as cardiology and dermatology.
“The new state-of-the-art Kalispell VA clinic will be designed specifically around the Veteran-centric Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT) model,” Montana VA Health Care System Executive Director Judy Hayman said in a statement. “This new clinic will give our Kalispell-area Veterans the care they truly deserve and offers the Montana VA what we really want – more opportunities to fulfill our solemn commitment and promise to care for those injured in our nation’s defense, and the families of those who lost their lives in service.”
Since 2020, seven new VA clinics have opened across the state. In addition to the Kalispell clinic, another facility is planned to begin construction in Hamilton to deliver services to 700 veterans in the Bitterroot Valley.
The Montana VA Health Care System serves over 47,000 enrolled veterans across Montana. About 1,400 people work at 18 sites of care across the state, and about one-third of employees are veterans.