Grant to fund veterans transportation services

WASHINGTON -- A $1 million federal grant announced Thursday will make it easier for veterans in Southern Nevada to hitch rides to VA clinics around the Las Vegas Valley and the soon-to-open hospital center in North Las Vegas, officials said.

The money will establish a centralized call center and dispatch network among veterans service groups that transport patients to appointments, they said.

The service, to be funded through the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, also would include the O'Callaghan Federal Hospital at Nellis Air Force Base in some cases, according to Tracy Bowers, transportation commission director of government affairs.

Veterans needing transportation to medical appointments currently call service organizations that provide rides. Through the call center, veterans "will call a single number and find out what transportation services are available," Bowers said.

The transportation commission has not set a schedule to open the service, which Bowers said will be based at one of the locations of the Nevada Adult Day Healthcare Centers.

"No matter where in the Las Vegas Valley they call home, veterans must be able to get a ride to and from their medical appointments and this funding will allow RTC to coordinate the delivery of these important transportation services," Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who wrote a letter on the transportation commission's behalf, said in a statement announcing the grant.

The streamlined ride system is the latest step in the build-out of services to Southern Nevada veterans centered on the scheduled opening next year of the North Las Vegas hospital and community living center on North Pecos Road.

The VA also is establishing four new primary care centers in each quadrant of the Las Vegas metropolitan area where veterans can receive checkups, get chest X-rays and fill prescriptions.

On Tuesday, officials cut the ribbon on another VA facility, a regional patient account center on Palms Airport Drive near McCarran International Airport.

Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., said at the ceremony that the center, one of seven that the VA is opening around the country to consolidate billing, would create 400 local jobs.

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.