SYRACUSE -- The Syracuse VA Medical Center unveiled changes on Friday. Patients are now able to use a new Community Living Center and chapel.
The goal of the project is to make the hospital feel a little bit more like home for the extended care patients. The Community Living Center includes a dining center, living room, and hair salon. It was built with $450,000 worth of federal stimulus money. It's getting high marks from the people who live there.
"It's phenomenal," says Floyd Jachimowicz, who has been at the center 8 years. "I can't believe it's all being done. This was promised to us five or six years ago and all of a sudden, here it comes."
The new chapel includes a camera, so patients anywhere in the building can watch services. The federal government provided about $492,000 for the renovation.
Congressman Dan Maffei attended the unveiling. He says the VA has received a total of $7.2 million in stimulus money. Maffei says he'd like to see a Community Living Center in every VA hospital in the country.
"When I got off the elevator, I didn't even think I was in the hospital," says Maffei. "It felt more like I was in a house environment, while not leaving the care facility of the VA, and that's really incredible to give the people that."
The year-long project has also helped the community. A local artisan designed the stained-glass windows and veteran-owned contractors were hired for construction.
"The whole purpose of all this is to make this the best environment the premiere environment for veterans to come get their services, services they've earned," says Medical Center director James Cody.
This project is just the beginning. Cody says a new psychiatry inpatient ward is expected to open in 7 or 8 months, and a spinal cord injury center is expected to be finished in two years.
