Confluence is building a $3 million clinic in Moses Lake
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 1 month AGO
Two lone members of a construction crew working Monday afternoon on the site of what will become Confluence Health's new $3 million clinic, expected to open in the summer of 2021.
Emry Dinman/Columbia Basin Herald
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | December 15, 2020 1:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — Construction started on a $3 million Confluence Health facility on Yonezawa Boulevard last week. It will have physicians in three specialties and room for visiting doctors.
Glenn Adams, chief operating officer for Confluence Health, said the 7,000-square-foot facility will include 13 exam rooms and one room for surgical procedures. Initially, the building will house vascular surgery, ophthalmology and general surgery services. The procedure room would be for surgical cases that normally would be performed in the doctor’s office, he said.
“We have been working on this for some time,” Adams said. “Our goal is to have the building functional by summer 2021.”
The new facility is the first building Confluence Health officials have built from the ground up in Moses Lake since the existing Moses Lake Clinic on Hill Street, Adams said. The building will help address a need at the current Moses Lake Clinic.
“We just needed a little bit more space,” Adams said.
Grant County’s population is still growing, and as a result there’s a need for additional primary care physicians, he said. Confluence is actively recruiting them. But the existing clinic is running out of room, Adams said. The decision to build was driven in part by the need to provide more space for primary care services.
“This was just the right time to get this done,” he said.
The Yonezawa facility also will have room for visiting specialists currently consulting with patients at Moses Lake Clinic.
“We’ve heard loud and clear from patients in that area (Grant County) that they want to be seen close to home,” he said.
The new building eventually could allow Confluence to bring in other specialties.
“We’re really working to make sure the building is flexible for future use,” he said.
The building was the first priority on Confluence’s list of expansion projects in Grant County, Adams said. The second priority is another – and larger – clinic on the same Yonezawa Boulevard property, although it’s still in the planning stages.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done on that one,” he said.
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