The new Valley View Health Center location in Winlock opened to patients for the first time last month.
Steve Clark, executive director of Valley View Health Center, speaks with marketing director Linda Tomasheck Tuesday at the new Winlock Valley View clinic’s first day open to patients.
Winlock’s Valley View Health Center location has been operating in cramped conditions for more than a year after the clinic burned down in October 2106.
But this week, Valley View officially opened its new permanent Winlock clinic to patients, offering more space, a location closer to town and behavioral health services two days a week.
“It’s fantastic,” said Steve Clark, executive director of Valley View Health Center. “It gives us room for expansion.”
Valley View moved into the building at 100 Cedar Crest Drive over the weekend and opened for patients Tuesday, said Valley View Marketing Director Linda Tomasheck.
The organization announced it had purchased the building in October, and spent the past two months preparing the building and filing required documents Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to open the clinic.
The new location features three exam rooms and a procedure room.
“The (old clinic) had three but was significantly smaller,” Tomasheck said.
The new space — which was also previously a doctor’s office — includes a spacious break room for staff. Valley View is still completing some work to replace flooring in a few rooms.
“I love it,” said ARNP Maryann Thomas, one of two nurse practitioners who operate out of the clinic.
Early in the morning of Oct. 29, 2016, Valley View’s former Winlock office at 615 Cemetery Road caught fire. Crews responded quickly and extinguished the fire, but the clinic was a total loss.
A few days after the fire, Valley View announced it would open temporary offices at Winlock Family Dentistry at 617 Cemetery Road.
“It definitely changed things for a short time,” Thomas said. “Within a week we were up and running.”
Clark said the Winlock staff proved to be resilient after the fire.
“They’re just a great group of people,” he said.
While providers and staff were crammed into a much smaller temporary space, they continued serving the clinic’s existing patients and handled 3,207 visits in the temporary clinic in the past 12 months, Clark said.
The temporary clinic remained in operation while Valley View staff evaluated whether to rebuild or purchase and refurbish an existing building. The latter turned out to be the best option, they said.
“Now that we have more room, we’ll be able to see more people,” Clark said.
Valley View Health Center focuses on serving low-income and uninsured patients, with a sliding scale payment option for people with no insurance.
The organization is partially funded by the federal government. It has 12 locations in the area and most recently expanded to Tenino.
