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LOCAL HEALTH UNIT RENOVATIONS NEARLY COMPLETE

By Amy Riggin/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Thursday, July 9, 2009 11:41 PM CDT

Renovations to the Jefferson County Health Unit at 2307 Rike Drive are nearly complete — and long overdue for a facility built in 1968, its administrator said.

Tyrone Tidwell, administrator at the Jefferson County Health Unit stands inside the main redesigned area of the building. Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald

“We still have stuff everywhere,” administrator Tyrone Tidwell said during a recent tour of the facility. “Most of the renovation is done but we’re still moving stuff around.”

He estimated that the finishing touches should be complete by the end of the month.

Walls throughout were a patchwork of blue, pink, green and other colors. Now they’re a uniform white, creating a more spacious look. And walls between tightly-woven corridors have been knocked out to make room for larger spaces.

Those are some of the most noticeable changes that have taken place as a result of a $272,000 renovation project that began in November, Tidwell said.

“Just the paint color was a dramatic change for everyone,” he said.

A newly-created room soon will be used as a central office space, where all files can be stored together, and a laboratory in the back of the building has been moved to the front for easier patient access. Instead of five examination rooms, the unit will house eight.

And clients are sure to notice more service windows — eight instead of four. In fact, some of them already were walking up to the new windows, which haven’t been staffed just yet.

“Everyone doesn’t read the signs,” Tidwell quipped as he directed a young lady to the appropriate window. “This is the second phase — for the first week we had somebody in the lobby directing people.”

The Jefferson County Health Unit offers a variety of services: The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, family planning, immunizations, in-home care, vital records maintenance and several others. Tidwell said staff didn’t have to eliminate any services during the renovation, but did have to cut down on the number of clients served due to space restrictions.

“We were actually able to keep all of our workforce here,” he said. “We were just confined to smaller work spaces — that was the most difficult thing for everybody. And sometimes the noise and dust was a problem but we worked through it.”

Terri Jackson, district manager for the Jefferson County unit, said she is “thrilled” with the changes.

“It’s been a long time coming,” she said, adding, “It’ll work easier for the patients.”

She said visitors from other county units had coined the facility “the maze.”

Some of the busiest clinics, such as family planning services and immunizations, serve as many as 50 clients a day. That number was cut in half at times during the project.

Though the facility is roughly 18,000 square feet, Tidwell said the space wasn’t being used as well as it could have been.

“The primary purpose of course is to improve patient flow and I believe we did accomplish that,” he said. “The less stops we can give them the better we can serve them, and be efficient with their time and our time.”

And that’s a good thing, considering that his is the largest unit in the state’s southeastern region in terms of patients and staff, Tidwell said. Including regional employees with offices there, the facility employs 33.

The average case load for tuberculosis skin tests alone is 300-400 a month. The busiest time for immunizations — 400-600 a month — is in the fall when students and employees are getting ready for school. Any other time it averages 100-200.

Tidwell said about 85 new patients come in each month for family planning services, which include physical exams and birth control. And about 2,200 people monthly are taking advantage of some form of WIC, whether it be applying for it or spending money already dispersed.

For the most part, feedback from the community has been positive.

“There are good days and bad days,” Tidwell said, acknowledging that some have been inconvenienced during the transitional time. But he’s also heard comments like, “Wow, this is nice,” and, more frankly, “It’s about time.”

Tidwell said the project was paid for by both state and county funds. Samco Construction Co. of Cabot was the primary contractor for the job.

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