Director's Veteran Message

Our dedicated team works tirelessly to ensure you receive the best medical care, resources, and support tailored to your unique needs. Whether it’s primary care, mental health services, or specialized programs, we are here for you. Thank you for your service. If you need to make an appointment, call 1-800-214-1306 or visit our website:  VA Pacific Islands Health Care | Veterans Affairs.

New Services to Begin in March – Urgent Care and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

The Daniel K. Akaka VA Clinic opened on April 8, 2024, and has created an important space for Veterans to get VA Care, come to events, and socialize. Now we are excited to announce we are opening an Urgent Care in March. You might seek help from an urgent care for non-life-threatening conditions that need to be addressed as soon as possible such illnesses like the flu, or infections. For a life-threatening emergency, Veterans will still need to call 911 and go to a hospital. Urgent care fills a gap between primary care and emergency care, assisting Veterans with issues such as: 

              • Acute illness like cold or flu
             • Treatment of infections
             • Care for minor wounds
             • Basic blood work
             • Muscle sprain or back pain

Veterans should still see their primary care physician whenever possible. Having a relationship with a primary care doctor helps with continuity of care. However, for concerns that can’t wait, VAPIHCS urgent care clinic will fill a real need and add to the services our Veterans can access through VA.

In addition to our new Urgent Care opening in March, we will also bring our new Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) online. This is a first for VAPIHCS, and we are excited to be able to provide this service in-house at the Akaka clinic in March. VAPIHCS has added a variety of services for Veterans in the Pacific Islands in the last few years, and we hope to continue this trend to meet Veterans where they are with the safe, compassionate, and quality care that they have earned and deserve. 

Tele Urgent Care Available to All VAPIHCS Veterans

We also have our VA Health Connect Clinical Contact Center which provides easy, on-demand services to Veterans. By calling 833-983-0487, Veterans can reach a Clinical Contact Center employee who can address their emergent needs quickly and efficiently. The Clinical Contact Center can help with:

• Pharmacy Services
• Scheduling Appointments
• Tele-Emergency Care
• Clinical Nurse Triage
   

This option is available across all the Pacific Islands, including the Hawaiian Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas. 

Upcoming Events

On March 6, 2025, VAPIHCS will have a Gastrointestinal (GI) Wellness Fair from 8 am to 1pm at the Daniel K. Akaka VA Clinic at 91-1051 Franklin D. Roosevelt Avenue, Kapolei HI 96707. The event will be an opportunity for Veterans to come and learn more about GI wellness. For questions, contact Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Manager Jenelle Duldulao: 808-433-0831. 

On March 6-7, 2025, VAPIHCS will hold a PACT Act Community Call from 8am to 1pm, at 3215 Kauai Veterans Memorial Hwy Ste H, Lihue, HI 96766. The event will have member service representatives ready to enroll Veterans who have never enrolled or those who have become newly eligible under the PACT Act. Veteran who are seeking to enroll in VA health care for the first time are encouraged to bring a copy of their DD214. Veterans who are already enrolled may also come for health services such as diabetic foot checks, vaccines, and blood pressure checks. All Veterans can come with health benefits questions. 

VAPIHCS will hold a PACT Act Registration and Community Call event from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on March 15 -16, 2025, at Micronesia Mall space 121 & 122 and Center Court, 1088 West Marine Corps Drive, Dededo, GU, 96929. The event will have member service representatives ready to enroll Veterans who have never enrolled or those who have become newly eligible under the PACT Act. Veteran who are seeking to enroll in VA health care for the first time are encouraged to bring a copy of their DD214. Veterans who are already enrolled may also come for health services such as diabetic foot checks, vaccines, and blood pressure checks. All Veterans can come with health benefits questions. For questions about either community call, contact Outreach Coordinator Maurice Martin: maurice.martin@va.gov.

Thoughts from Chaplain Richie Charles

Diamonds, like most of the precious gemstones we know and admire, are formed under a process involving unfathomable degrees of pressure and heat. Whether they be rubies, sapphires, or emeralds, these gemstones form deep within the Earth under extreme conditions. But many are surprised to learn that a diamond and pencil lead are actually the same element - carbon. Although they are both made from the same material, they could not be more different. Diamonds sparkle, while pencil lead has a dull appearance. Diamonds are the hardest natural substance on Earth, but pencil lead is fragile and rubs off easily on paper. Diamonds are incredibly rare and costly, while pencil lead can be found on any common store shelf.

What sets them apart, is not what they’re made of, but what they had to go through. Diamonds are formed as deep as 150 miles underground, which is 27 times deeper than the height of Mount Everest! At those depths, the pressure from the Earth exerting upon a diamond is at 720,000 pounds per square inch. Diamonds form at searing temperatures exceeding 2,000°F and take many years to form.
But it is precisely these extreme conditions that give diamonds such rare qualities. The diamond’s unique ability to refract and reflect light creates a dazzling sparkle that can leave one mesmerized. Universally praised and admired for its brilliance, rarity, and durability – diamonds serve as a testament to the power of endurance.

Perhaps, like the diamond, you might be surrounded by foreboding circumstances creating a sense of pressure and stress. While pressure is never pleasant and seldom welcomed, they are at times unavoidable. But as unpleasant as pressure might be, it can, like diamonds, create opportunities to develop you into the highest version of yourself. Successfully enduring difficulties can help form rare and precious degrees of strength and resilience.

Let’s commit to seeking to thrive and grow regardless of circumstances, allowing difficulties to produce opportunities to become even better.

One Team, One Ohana!
Adam M. Robinson, Jr., MD, MBA, CPE 
Director, VA Pacific Islands Health Care System
VADM, MC, USN, (RET)
36th Surgeon General, USN

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