Remodeling brings a new look and feel for CHC

When the Cooperative Health Center opens this morning, patients and staff alike will use a different door and enter a facility that is dramatically different from what it was on Friday.

Gone will be the poor lighting and crowded waiting area. Discussing medical issues with reception staff will be less public. Separate rooms, with sliding glass-paneled doors, will create a confidential setting to discuss billing. Medical exam rooms will no longer be down the hall from nursing stations and will now surround the two stations where the nursing staff will work.

The health center has been undergoing a renovation that, with the addition of a basement that provides more room for future expansion, will cost between $5.2 million and $5.3 million, said Kyle Thomas, the Lewis and Clark County assistant director of public works.

Its also in the midst of a $48,000 rebranding that will produce a new name and logo to go with the health centers new look.

Work on the facility started in December 2013, Thomas said, noting that the renovation will add about 10,000 square feet to the building. With the addition, the health center building will contain about 37,000 square feet. Of that total square footage, some 2,500 square feet have been added to the front of the building.

The 18 medical exam rooms represent an increase of five from what the health center had, he continued. The six rooms for dental procedures will double what was previously provided.

Phase one of the reconstruction is completed and all services that were provided in the old portion of the building are being moved into the new portion of the building, Thomas said.

The new entrance and parking lot for patients is off Fee Street, around the corner as it were, from the current entrance that is familiar to those who come for health services.

Phase two work on the building will prepare it for the return of its dental services. Dental services have been temporarily relocated to an office at 251 Saddle Drive, which is a half-block east of St. Peters Hospital, the health centers website noted.

Its going to be so nice for all those folks who have suffered through the construction, said Ellen Feaver, the vice chairwoman of the health centers board.

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Remodeling brings a new look and feel for CHC