Columbia's Dorn VA hospital getting $114 million in new buildings, renovations

The W.J.B. Dorn VA Medical Center in Columbia is beginning a massive $114 million construction and renovation program to improve patient care, parking and security. It's the largest update for the medical center since the five-story main hospital was built in the late 1970s.

The dozen or so projects, which began last month and will continue throughout this year, include more parking, a new police station and fencing, new clinics, extensive modifications to the main hospital and renovation of the historic former nurses quarters, one of the original 1932 buildings.

The program also includes four new community-based outpatient clinics in Sumter, Orangeburg, Rock Hill and Florence. The new facilities will be twice to four times the size of the present clinics.

"We have been identified as one of the fastest growing catchment areas in the country," said David Omura, the medical center's director, referring to the Upstate and Midlands area from which the hospital draws patients.

The ambitious building program "means those veterans will have access to the best technologies available," he said.

The new facilities are needed, Omura said, because of the influx of new post 9/11 patients, and the trend of more retirees moving south or migrating here to spend the winter.

The number of patients using the facility has increased by 3.5 percent over the past two years. Female patients have increased by 13.6 percent. The Dorn hospital treats 83,918 patients now. That number is expected to rise to nearly 90,000 by 2022.

Today, Columbia is the third largest veterans hospital in the Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Alabama region. It ranks behind Atlanta (112,614 patients ) and Salisbury, N.C., (87,299). Charleston is No. 4 with 74,533 patients.

"We have more veterans with a demand for primary care services and surgical needs, and more and more people who are interested in coming here in the winter," Omura said, also noting the presence of Fort Jackson in Columbia, Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, McEntire Joint National Guard Base in Eastover and even Fort Gordon in Augusta.

To care for those additional patients, Dorn plans to add more than 500 new staffers. It has 2,562 staffers today and is expected to swell to 3,087 in the next five years.

Hospital opened in 1930

The Columbia VA Hospital was begun in 1930 and completed in 1932 at a cost of $1.4 million — that would be $35 million today considering inflation.

In January 1976, ground was broken for the five-story, 250,000-square-foot replacement hospital that is used today. It was built at a cost of about $32 million, or $122 million today.

(The building was renamed for Wm. Jennings Bryan Dorn in 1978. Dorn was a World War II veteran from Greenwood County who served in Congress as a Democrat from 1947 to 1949 and from 1951 to 1975, championing veterans issues.)

This most recent building program includes:

▪ 13 new on-campus construction projects totaling nearly $68 million;

▪ 4 new regional outpatient clinics totaling more than $40 million;

▪ 224 new surface parking spaces, some lots with solar canopies, at cost of $815,000; and,

▪ Interior improvements to existing facilities totaling $5.5 million.

"We want to have the facilities to make veterans want to come here," Omura said.

Current veterans health issues

Omura noted that post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and loss of limbs due to homemade roadside bombs are particularly problematic for veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Assimilating back into stateside society and connecting with family can also be a challenge.

So among the new buildings being built are a prosthetics center, rehab center and behavioral health center.

"They've really stepped to the plate with their PTSD service," said Darlene Walton, a Vietnam-era Army nurse who is a representative of South Carolina American Legion's VA Volunteer Services.

To make getting care more convenient and safe, a police station, security fence, parking structure and surface lots are being built. Two shuttle buses will also help patients from the new parking areas to the hospital.

And the former nurses quarters will be renovated into a primary care center, freeing up room in the main hospital for more serious cases.

"With their growth and trying to separate the primary care and main hospital, they can bring in more folks and give more care to our locals," Walton said. "There's just more capacity."

Wayne Smith, 71, served as a radar operator on an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War. He has had three heart surgeries and goes to Dorn for everything from eye checkups to urology.

He said the attitude of VA staff is as important as the new facilities.

"They’re making it more welcoming to us," he said. "We’re not just a number; we're a person. We’re thanked for our service. And they say it from the bottom of their hearts."

Dorn Building Program

Parking garage — $9.9 million

Behavioral Health Center — $8.8 million

Prosthetics and Sensory Aid Center — $8.3 million

Center for Rehabilitative Services — $9.5 million

Police station — $3.3 million

Fisher House — $6.3 million

Eye clinic — $9.3 million

Perimeter fence — $2.4 million

Nurse quarters renovation — $9.9 million

4 community-based outpatient clinics — $40 million-plus

This story was originally published March 16, 2018 at 8:45 AM with the headline "Columbia's Dorn VA hospital getting $114 million in new buildings, renovations."