Fayetteville, NC - With our country at war for the last eight years and the aging Viet Nam vet population, there are a lot of veterans with injuries (mental and physical) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is rapidly expanding their services. The trend has been to move administrative departments and mental health services out of the main hospital so they can expand patient care space. They are also building community based outpatient clinics in areas where there are large veteran populations. Over-burdened and under-staffed VA facilities rely on dealers knowledgeable of the GSA process and standards to execute fast-track construction of these outpatient clinics.
Over the past seven years, Rose Wunder (Storr Office Environments - Raleigh, NC) has built a solid relationship with Lynne Gorman (VA Facility Manager - Durham, NC) by being a knowledgeable and agile resource. When the VA in Fayetteville, NC needed to build a new outpatient clinic, Lynne strongly recommended Rose for the project (Wilmington CBOC).
Holly Gack (Pomerantz - Steelcase
SDVOB*) secured the job by persuading her contact at the VA contracting office to commit to working with a SDVOB.
Fayetteville doesn't have staff resources for interior design and relied heavily on Rose's understanding of the GSA process and standards to specify everything from furniture to building finishes. Rose took charge of the project and had product delivered in five weeks.
"I was able to take my experience from working on other VA clinics and pop the standard right into the Wilmington Clinic. The project was on a tight schedule and the opening would have been stalled if I had not had the experience with doing other clinics." (Rose Wunder) Rose recommends Nurture dealers get to know the interior designer from your local VA.
"They are typically overworked and would welcome the help of someone who is knowledgeable and quick to respond. You must be willing to do the small day to day things in order to build trust and respect. You need to establish yourself as the go to person in a crunch."
Also, visit the VA website (www.va.gov) and read -- there is a wealth of knowledge on this site including business opportunities, press releases, veteran's legislation and congressional initiatives.
