Niverville town councillors and administrative staff of Open Health collectively gathered on April 28 for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony of the clinic’s newly expanded space.

In an attempt to keep up with the region’s rapidly growing population, Open Health had negotiated for the only remaining space available at the Heritage Centre. Two hotel rooms once adjoining the clinic have now been emptied and renovated, a process that began 16 months ago.

Today, in their place, four new fully equipped clinical rooms exist, including one minor procedures bed. As well, the wing includes its own reception desk and patient waiting area.

“Anytime you have a provider working, of course, you don’t want them working alone,” says Sheyna Andries, Director of Health Services at Open Health Niverville. “The receptionist will be able to greet the patients, get them checked in, as well as provide chaperoning during those more intimate procedures.”

The minor procedures bed will be the second one at the clinic, giving opportunity for clinicians to provide low-risk treatments requiring only local anaesthetic.

The cost to renovate the space came to $256,000. In its entirety, Open Health now includes 15 clinical rooms for their 15 physicians.

According to Andries, about 200 patients come through Open Health’s doors on a daily basis. With the availability of these new clinical rooms, the clinic will have more flexibility to extend their hours.

Nathan Dueck, town councillor and president of Niverville Healthcare Services (NHS), says that they hope to continue in their efforts towards physician recruitment going forward.

“As a community, we’ve done very well for many reasons, one being proximity to the city,” says Dueck. “It’s a small drive out. It’s a nice location and the stress levels for physicians are considerably lower [because] we’ve built an extremely nice working environment for physicians to come to.”

Andries agrees that Open Health offers something unique to their staff and patients.

“We really try to focus on having a good solid team,” she says. “[Because] of our collaboration with Southern Health, lots of providers are thankful to knock on someone else’s door and get another perspective and some answers right away. This team environment is something that we really excel at.”

It’s also a model, Dueck adds, that honours the intent of the clinic’s original proprietors, Drs. Chris and Mairi Burnett.

While the acquisition of health providers will be an ongoing process for years to come, so too are the conversations that NHS will have with the province and Southern Health-Sante Sud.

The hope for this forward-thinking team is to grow and build on Niverville’s medical offerings until the majority of healthcare wrap-around services can be found here.

“We have a growing community with 7,500 people,” Dueck says. “We are likely [to be] the next city in the province… So as we move our community [in that direction], we’re really looking forward to some very large expansions when it comes to our medical care.”