Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Roanoke health care center shows off improvements
New Horizons Healthcare has 11 new exam room beds and larger laboratory and waiting rooms.
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The Rev. William Lee was flabbergasted when he stepped off the elevator on the building's third floor. He saw arrows pointing right and left for physicians' offices. He saw a sign in relieved brown letters: "New Horizons Healthcare."
The center for federally subsidized care for uninsured or underinsured people unveiled Tuesday night the face-lift it got using federal stimulus money. Among the renovations to the Northwest Roanoke site was a conference room named after Lee, the Loudon Avenue Christian Church pastor who founded the center.
Other renovations included three new medical exam rooms, 11 new exam room beds and laboratory and waiting rooms twice the size of the old ones.
"I thought I was lost when I got here," Lee said as he toured the new facilities at the Valley View Medical Center.
"This is almost unbelievable."
Lee's disbelief stems from the center's humble origins. Several community leaders began talking about medical needs in Northwest Roanoke in 1994, where, according to newspaper archives, one-quarter of the population lived below the poverty level.
In March 1999 a facility called the Kuumba Community Health & Wellness Center was incorporated, with two employees working in the church's basement. That year, Lee signed the first check for the center for $3,640.
By December 2000, the center had grown to 10 employees and consisted of a modular facility of five trailers on Melrose Avenue near Peters Creek Road. People would joke that if someone shut the doors too hard, the whole building would shake.
It was in 2007 that the center moved to the Valley View Medical Center, which had old carpets and hand-me-down equipment from other medical practices.
Then came the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The center got a grant for $140,177 and another for $345,620.
"This is the federal government getting a huge bang for their buck," said U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County.
The center now serves an average of 1,200 customers per month and employs 30 people.
"The purpose of the stimulus was to enable us to serve more patients," said Eileen Lepro, the center's executive director. "That's exactly what we're going to do."
