Porter clinic to expand for demand

By Keith Purtell

PORTER — When the Porter Health Clinic moves into its new facility, it will triple the number of exam rooms.

CEO Dr. James Turner said the existing structure is very cramped and can only handle 50 to 100 patients per week.

“The demand for services is constantly increasing,” he said. “I think some of the factors are people losing their jobs, the general economy, and people losing benefits.”

Officially, the facility is known as the Arkansas Verdigris Valley Health Centers with another facility in McAlester. The one in Porter was established in 2006.

Turner said he has 10 people on staff and only two examining rooms.

“The new structure, which we are in the process of acquiring, will triple the number of exam rooms to six,” he said.

Turner said the clinic has a mobile dental facility next door with one dental chair and a waiting room.

“We’re attempting to buy that van and take out the equipment and put it in the new building,” he said.

Turner said the clinic is a Federally Qualified Health Center and not a free clinic. It takes payment from the insured and the underinsured and treats the uninsured on a sliding scale.

“We see people from Haskell, Wagoner, Coweta, Tullahasee and Muskogee,” he said. “Our dental facility has seen people from as far away as Sapulpa.”

The existing facility has two health providers — a physician’s assistant and a dentist. Turner said that should change when the new facility opens.

“We plan to have a physician,” he said. “That’s kind of my goal, to open the new facility and add the physician at the same time. We want to serve as many people as we can in this area.”

Alan Parnell, chairman of the board that oversees the clinic, said the new facility across the street from the existing one will probably be open in January or February.

“We’ve basically been planning this for four of five months,” he said.

Payment for the lease will come from the original source that got the clinic started, Parnell said. An exact number isn’t available because the final papers have not been signed.

“The funding will be part of the grant that we received for Federally Qualified Health Centers that allows us to lease buildings that we can operate out of.”

Parnell said the move into the larger space won’t just benefit patients.

“I’m looking forward to being able to provide a facility that is big enough to take care of the needs that we have — medical needs and also employee needs,” he said.

Reach Keith Purtell at 684-2925 or kpurtell@muskogeephoeni x.com.

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