In what started as an effort provide more room for the local clinic, Whidbey General Hospital is expanding its plans to centralize all its medical services in Oak Harbor.
To accomplish that goal, hospital officials are working with a developer to construct a building and lease space that will house the North Whidbey Community Health Clinic, mammography and x-ray services, and Rehabilitation Services.
“It gives us a central presence in Oak Harbor,” said Peter Borden, Whidbey General Hospital board president at Monday night’s hospital board meeting. He added that the centralized services would help keep residents from going off Whidbey Island for health care.
The location of the new 14,000-square-foot building will be on Goldie Road behind the Best Western Harbor Plaza.
CEO of Whidbey General Hospital, Scott Rhine, said that the hospital hopes to have a lease negotiated by the end of the month and brought before the board at its June 30 meeting for approval.
Rhine added he expects to see a rent increase for the community clinic but a decrease in rent to house Rehabilitation Services. However, the expanded space of the new building would provide the ability to see more patients and would cover any increase in rent.
Once the lease is negotiated, Rhine said in a Tuesday morning interview, he hopes to have the North Whidbey Community Clinic, mammography services and x-ray services moved into the Goldie Road location sometime next spring. Then in the fall of 2004, Rehabilitation Services will move from its Midway Avenue location into the new building.
There will also be extra physician space made available for specialists to rotate through the clinic once a week.
The need for a new building stems from the need to increase space at the North Whidbey Community Clinic.
The clinic has recently been seeing approximately 800 patients a month, up from 250 per month in 1999. The dental clinic sees about 100 patients a month out of a room in the clinic. Although the room is large enough for two chairs, only one person can be seen at a time due to privacy concerns.
Moving the community clinic would free up space for the dental clinic to expand. The North Whidbey Community Clinic and dental clinic is located on Regatta and shares space with the Health Department and the Opportunity Council.
The current location provides clinic doctors with 1,600 square feet of space for examination space and an additional 400 square feet that they share with the waiting area.
Should the deal with the new building go through, the clinic will have 3,800 square feet of space.
Keeping the Dental Clinic in its current location honors a commitment the hospital made in the 1990s.
The hospital received grant money to build clinics in Oak Harbor, South Whidbey and Camano Island. One of the requirements of the grant money is that the buildings had to be used for health services for 10 years.
Rhine added that consolidating services in Oak Harbor will provide more efficient staffing.
You can reach News-Times reporter Nathan Whalen at nwhalen@whidbeynewstimes.com or 675-6611.
