The Emporia Gazette

May 28, 2012

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The final plans are being drawn up and the Flint Hills Community Health Center soon will be able to start remodeling the center’s dental clinic — a project that will double the amount of patients the clinic can take.

The remodeling, which will turn the dental clinic into a dental hub, also will allow the center to add more counties to the area the dental clinic can serve. Lougene Marsh, executive director of the center, said the dental clinic now can only take patients from Lyon, Chase, Greenwood and Osage counties with its current space and staff. Once the expansion is done, it will be able to take patients from other counties such as Morris, Wabaunsee and Coffey. But if the clinic can handle the load, it likely won’t stop there.

“As long as we can meet the demand, we would certainly accept patients from other counties as well,” Marsh said.

The expansion is made possible by a $576,574 Dental Hub grant through the Jones Trust. The first year of the grant will be used to extend the physical space and add four more operatories and remodel and equip the additional space. The dental clinic has four operatories now, so the project will double that, Marsh said.

The grant also will allow for more staff, which will include at least one more full-time dentist and possibly a third, Marsh said.

“Two full-time dentists are what we need to run a clinic of this size,” Marsh said.

Two more hygienists will be added with the possibility of adding a third, as well as two more dental assistants. The registration staff probably will grow by one position to handle the additional patient load.

What the grant means for patients is more availability of appointments.

“We should be able to at least double our patient load,” Marsh said.

Additional staff will allow for more community outreach. Marsh said she hopes to see more growth in this area, which includes going to schools to do preventative dentistry. Marsh said the clinic also will look into the need at adult care and senior living centers.

Marsh said the clinic will use existing space instead of adding more. To make room for the equipment, the layout will need to be changed. The waiting area now in the dental clinic will be used to gain additional space for operatories. Under the new floor plan, patients will wait outside the dental clinic in the waiting room of the health center. Also to save space, cabinet and counter space will be shared between two operatories.

“We can save a lot of space by doing that,” Marsh said.

The plans are being completed, Marsh said, and she anticipates having them in hand by mid-February. A legal publication will have to be published before bids are solicited through the Lyon County Commission. The bids have to go through commissioners because the building the health center is in is a county-owned building. Marsh said construction should start mid- to late April with plans to have the expanded clinic operational by July 1.