Battle Ground is gaining access to new medical services — and a new place in which to receive them — thanks to The Vancouver Clinic’s decision to build a $12 million, 48,000-square-foot facility at 2005 W. Main St.
The doctor-owned clinic, serving Southwest Washington since 1936, celebrated the opening Wednesday of its fourth two-story, architecturally similar building. At an open house, the public met the Battle Ground clinic’s staff and took tours of the new facility, among other activities.
The building, constructed by the Neenan Company, harbors the clinic’s current practices in family medicine, pediatrics and urgent care. Additionally, the Battle Ground site enables the clinic to add two new departments: internal medicine and obstetrics/gynecology. Expanded imaging and lab suites, and physical therapy services are part of the mix, too.
The project is the latest for the growing health care company, which now employs 1,004 full-time and part-time employees. The Vancouver Clinic’s staff of health care providers, including doctors and nurse practitioners, grew from 174 in December 2006 to 214 in December 2010 — a 23 percent increase.
The new Battle Ground building houses 43 clinic employees and is expected to welcome 55 more in the first quarter of this year, for a total of 98, according to Tom VanSweringen, CEO of The Vancouver Clinic. Also, the clinic plans to move its patient service center — where the clinic takes calls for doctor appointments and runs its nurse advice line — from its current location at the clinic’s Columbia Tech Center site to the Battle Ground facility.
That will free up space at the Columbia Tech Center location for clinical services, VanSweringen said.
The Battle Ground facility is a crucial part of The Vancouver Clinic’s growth strategy, VanSweringen said, noting that the city has been one of the fastest-growing areas of Clark County. “We think it’s important to be there,” he said.
VanSweringen said the Battle Ground location allows the clinic to provide services to people who live farther north in Clark County and even in Cowlitz County. That ability to serve a larger region becomes even clearer, he said, when you consider the opening of the Interstate 5-Battle Ground interchange and plans to make state Highway 502 a four-lane road all the way into the city.
The two-story building replaces the old clinic at 2005 W. Main St., quadrupling the space. Architectural features of the project include an arched entrance and galleria with a glassed-in reception room similar in design to the clinic’s 87th Avenue, Columbia Tech Center and Salmon Creek facilities.
VanSweringen said the idea behind making the clinic’s buildings architecturally similar is to welcome patients to a familiar and friendly setting.
People will think, “I know this place,” he said, explaining the look and feel of the new building in Battle Ground. “I can find my way around here.”
