PATTEN – The Katahdin Valley Health Center is no stranger to expansion.
Over the years, the Patten-based organization has opened a clinic in Island Falls and two clinics in Millinocket – one dedicated to primary care, the other a full-service dental clinic.
In December 2005, KVHC also opened a facility on Bangor Street in Houlton, where it quickly added podiatry and optometry services to an already expansive list of services that it provides to area residents.
Now KVHC wants to begin growing again, and a $50,000 grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation is going to help them do it.
The money will help fund the expansion of KVHC’s facilities in Patten and Millinocket.
KVHC serves more than 4,600 patients annually, most of whom are uninsured or underinsured. It provides services to residents in 26 municipalities, five plantations and 22 unorganized territories in northern Penobscot, southern Aroostook and northern Piscataquis Counties.
Durward Humphrey, KVHC’s executive director, in a written statement earlier this week, said that the planned expansion would create 24 new exam rooms between its clinics in Patten and Millinocket.
The growth at the sites would meet the growing needs of those in KVHC’s service area, he added.
In concert with meeting the needs of its clients, the expansion also is expected to bring more jobs into the area through the creation of construction and professional health care positions, according to Humphrey.
Right now, the Patten clinic has six exam rooms in 2,800 square feet of space, and the Millinocket primary care clinic has four exam rooms in 2,600 square feet.
The expanded Patten site would allow for the development of 10 new exam rooms, according to Humphrey, eight of which would be used for medical primary care and two for mental health and substance abuse treatment.
Expansion plans call for the creation of 14 new exam rooms in the Millinocket clinic.
Two of those rooms would be dedicated to mental health and substance abuse treatment, two would be dedicated to oral health and the remainder would serve as medical primary care rooms.
The estimated cost of the expansion project is $3.85 million – $2.1 million of that would be spent at the Millinocket clinic, while $1.75 million would fund the growth in Patten.
Humphrey said Friday that KVHC continues to seek out funding sources for the project, and they hope to begin the expansion project by next April.
The executive director said the donation from the King Foundation is “a huge step towards making these projects a reality.”
Comments
comments for this post are closed