The Vineyard Nursing Association announced this week that it has launched a capital campaign to raise money to buy the building that houses its office off State Road in Vineyard Haven. The purchase price for the facility, located at 15 Merchant’s Court, is just over $2 million.

“By anyone’s measure, we are entering a new and exciting era in health care,” wrote VNA executive director Bob Tonti in a letter that accompanies the nursing association’s annual report for 2010.

Founded in 1984, the VNA is the Island’s only certified home health care agency, and reported annual revenues of some $3.3 million last year. Annual home visits have increased from 15,000 to 34,000 in the last five years, the agency reports. In addition to home health care and private duty nursing, VNA hosts community clinics throughout the year, including for blood pressure screening and flu vaccinations, and pays visits to new babies at home.

The nursing association has relocated twice in recent years; the agency had previously been housed in the old Martha’s Vineyard Hospital for 20 years. The office was moved when the new hospital began construction, and while original plans called for moving back into the new hospital once completed, the space there is now no longer large enough to accommodate the agency’s needs.

Hence the plan to buy the space currently being rented at Merchant’s Court, in the commercial complex across from the Black Dog Cafe on State Road in Vineyard Haven. The agency has plans to expand its programs and staff, based partly on national statistics that report 35 million people over the age of 85 living in the U.S., a number that is expected to double by 2020. “The Vineyard is a microcosm of what is happening nationally where the population older than 65 is expected to grow 80 per cent by 2020 . . . That number represents 21 per cent of the total Island population,” a VNA press release said. “Buying the building is a critical first step.”

The VNA has signed an option to buy the building that will expire on March 31 of next year.