Health center to buy much larger building

<p>The Petaluma Health Center is in the final stages of negotiating the purchase of a facility on North McDowell Boulevard that will be more than three times as large as its current site.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>“We’re negotiating the price, and hope to sign a contract by next week and close the deal by the end of October. This absolutely will happen,” said Kathie Powell, the health center’s executive director.</p><p>She said that the price of the building will be around $5 million, and that the PHC’s board of directors has requested that the exact location not be revealed during negotiations. </p><p>“Extensive renovations will need to be done, so realistically, we hope to be moved in by September of 2010,” Powell said.</p><p>The building, which will house health, dental and mental-health services, has 50,000 square feet of space, as compared with 15,000 square feet at the PHC’s current site, at 1301 Southpoint Blvd.</p><p>“It will provide us with enough room for the next 10 years,” Powell said. “We will use about 40,000 square feet of space, lease 5,000 square feet to the Redwood Community Health Coalition and find someone else to lease the other 5,000 square feet.”</p><p>Part of the funding will come from money the PHC borrows — it is working with financial consultants to discover how much it can obtain — as well as through a capital campaign.</p><p>Also, the health center recently received $277,000 in federal stimulus funds to add health-care providers and other staff members over a two-year period, and hopes to soon receive an additional $716,000 in stimulus money for construction and renovation during the expansion.</p><p>The PHC also has applied for a facility-improvement grant from the Health Resources Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources. Grant winners will be announced on Nov. 1, and awards will be from $3 million to $5 million.</p><p>In the meantime, the PHC is making plans to best accommodate its ever-increasing patient load.</p><p>So, it is opening a portable building at its current site that will house chronic disease management and prevention and assist people who want to sign up for public health programs.</p><p>“We also are thinking of opening up a westside office that would be used by two physicians. We’re looking to do this downtown, and are now looking at a place on Fourth Street,” Powell said.</p><p>Also, because there currently is no space available for additional physicians at the PHC, Powell proposed at the latest PHCD board meeting that other local primary-care physicians consider accepting patient referrals.</p><p>“But all of their practices are full,” she said. “So, the situation isn’t resolved yet. We’re working with the health-care district to set up a clinic that would take care of the urgent health-care needs of people who have been treated here before, but have lost their insurance.</p><p>“Realistically, it will take another month for the clinic to open, but the demand for physician services goes down during the summer. I hope we can see them at the health center while we’re setting up the clinic.”</p><p>(Contact Dan Johnson at dan.johnson@arguscourier.com)</p>