News : What\'s going on at the Vinton Family Medical Clinic?

VGH leaders, staff and donors gathered for a clinic groundbreaking photo Friday.

Valet staff has been expanded to provide service for the clinic as well as the hospital

Front entrance of the new clinic

New clinic as it will appear from the front of the exisiting hospital

Additional parking added this past spring

Additional parking to the north of the current clinic

Once the construction company blocked-off a portion of the Vinton Family Medical Clinic parking, patients began asking what was going on. We thought “everyone” knew, but apparently not.

To recap, a new clinic was deemed necessary to replace the current clinic, constructed in the ‘70’s. The new building will cost approximately $5.5 million and be paid for with $4.5 million in funds from Virginia Gay’s ongoing operations, and $1 million in donations from donors and from the Virginia Gay Healthcare Foundation.

The new building will be two stories, and it will be more than double the size of the current clinic building. There is exam and office capacity to support three additional primary health care providers, allowing Virginia Gay to increase primary care providers in Vinton from six to nine. The exam rooms are 20 percent larger and are square rather than rectangular. All primary care providers will be on the first floor of the building when it is opened.

All of this work is expected to be completed in the fall of 2017.

Preparation for the start of the project required adding valet staff to provide free valet service to clinic patients during construction. Because parking space, already limited, would be further reduced during construction, Virginia Gay added parking capacity to the northeast of the current clinic.

At the end of the project there will be an additional 29 parking spaces for the clinic and a covered portico for patients to use.

Hospital leaders and employees gathered for a ground-breaking celebration Friday inside the fenced-in area where work will soon be visibly in progress.