Youngstown Veterans’ Clinic opens new dermatology service

Veterans’ Affairs Northeast Ohio Healthcare System (VANEOHS) has announced the opening of the Carl Nunziato Youngstown VA Outpatient Clinic’s dermatology specialty service.

The expansion of the Youngstown VA Clinic’s dermatology services means hundreds of Veterans in eastern Ohio counties will be able to receive care much closer to home, saving them hours of driving to the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center.

Youngstown joins both the Akron VA Clinic and the Parma VA Clinic as the third outpatient clinic to offer these specialty services. Akron and Parma each provide dermatology appointments with two providers, every weekday, serving an average of 150 patients per week.

Initially, the Youngstown VA dermatology team will schedule Tuesday appointments with a dermatology-trained nurse practitioner. Plans are to expand to Youngstown VA Clinic dermatology specialty to three days each week by late August, when the addition of a dermatology physician will allow up to 50 patients to be scheduled each week.

“Our goal is to care for our veterans in Youngstown and surrounding counties, who have acute and chronic skin conditions, as well as veterans who have skin cancers and pre-cancers,” Dr. Elma Baron, Chief of Dermatology at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center said. “Proper surveillance of the skin through regular full body skin exams with the dermatologist result in early detection and treatment of skin cancers. Many of our veterans also suffer from inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis and eczema that require targeted immunologic therapies.

The new dermatology service expansion at the Youngstown VA Clinic will allow more Veterans to utilize VA care, which is proven to be the best care in America for Veterans.

“Adding more accessible dermatology services for Veterans in eastern Ohio will help hundreds of Veterans to more easily enjoy high-quality care they deserve, while reducing travel time and making their care far more convenient in their community,” Baron said.

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