Clinic’s facelift is a year long operation Published March 30, 2007 By Jennifer Carroll 71st Flying Training Wing Contributing Writer VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Vance AFB clinic is going through a year-long renovation process to improve work areas and provide an aesthetically pleasing facility for customers and employees. The clinic encompasses family, flight, and optometry medicine, immunization, public health, dental, pharmacy, laboratory, radiology, life skills, health and wellness and bio-environmental. According to Lt. Col. Billye Hutchison, 71st Medical Operations Squadron commander, all services will continue during its renovation process with exception of radiological treatment. This will be provided downtown for the next several weeks. Once the first phase is completed, radiology will become available in the facility again. Maintaining most medical areas requires occasional relocation of sections within the clinic. "For patients, who currently need radiological treatment, the two major medical facilities off-base are St. Mary's Hospital or Integris Bass Baptist Health Center," assistant facility manager, Tech. Sgt. Belinda Fluke, said. "Our patients come to us first and then we're like a central hub that sends them out, if we cannot provide them care. Apart from the two hospitals in Enid, we use hospitals in Oklahoma City for specialty care," Capt. David Huinker, medical logistics flight commander, explained. The clinic's facelift comprises several projects and a renovation plan. An administration building was built to accommodate clinic leadership. This will free up more space for patient care. Other projects were the new completed veterinarian clinic and the life skills building, which is now under construction. Currently, the clinic's $1.9 million renovation project is in the first of six construction phases. "The vision concept is to bring all medical assets to one central location, kind of like a medical campus to have everything on one landmark. It should be finished no later than the end of this year," Captain Huinker said. "The pharmacy and the waiting area are going to have the largest impact on our beneficiaries around the summertime. That's when we're really going to have to ask people to be patient," Tech. Sergeant Fluke said. Shane Campbell, the facility manager, oversees all the maintenance on the building and coordinates relocations within the clinic during the renovation project. "This is the first renovation since the clinic opened in 1977, and it was needed badly. It has 30-year-old decorations," Mr. Campbell stated. "Reflective lighting, wall papers, floors, and ceilings are going to be redone in all sections of the clinic." Reducing two radiology rooms to one makes space for new equipment and a centralized storage room. Due to digitalization, dark rooms can be taken out. "The Vance AFB clinic will probably provide radiological treatment by the end of April again," Mr. Campbell said. The waiting area is being enlarged and reception windows rearranged. Moving immunizations, clinical medicine and pediatrics as well as expanding flight medicine exam rooms will allow immediate access to these sections, according to Mr. Campbell. "The biggest change will be the centralized nursing station. So, whenever someone needs a nurse, it'll be a hop, skip and jump, see a nurse and go," he said. The Vance AFB clinic is undergoing these and many other changes for patient-oriented convenience and medical care. "If you've got the means to do things right, do as much as you can. Everybody is doing a great job," Mr. Campbell said.