Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem empty?

Salem VA’s new mental health center still empty
The Roanoke Times
By Laurence Hammack
April 15, 2014

Nearly half a year after the planned opening of a new psychiatric building at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem, the facility still sits empty.

It could be July or August before the 38-bed inpatient treatment center is occupied, according to VA officials who said the delay comes as they await delivery of furnishings for the newly completed building.

The $9.5 million building was scheduled to open in the fall of 2013, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Nov. 20.

Since then, some of the specialized furnishings needed for patient safety “have required more time in production than was originally anticipated,” Salem VA spokeswoman Marian McConnell wrote in an email Tuesday.

Details on the types of furnishings involved were not available.

Only about a third of the ordered items have been delivered so far. Once the furnishings arrive, workers must install wiring for a system that will provide communication between patients in secure rooms and a nursing station.
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