The Bay County Health Department is planning a $1.9 million expansion that will add exam rooms and create space for diabetes prevention and support programs.
The County Commission on Tuesday approved of an agreement that paves the way for a new 7,000-square-foot building addition to the current facility at 597 W. 11th St.
It is expected to open in June of 2016.
Land will not need to be purchased, as the new building is slated to be constructed on the northeast portion of the property.
Commissioners agreed to enter into an agreement with the Florida Department of Health stating that the county would maintain the building if the state funds come in for the expansion as expected.
Douglas Kent, administrator for the Florida Department of Health Bay County, said after Tuesday’s commission meeting the state grant money has been awarded and he expects the legislature to release the funds at its next session.
“Our next objective is to go to our local legislators and get it assigned,” he said. “This money is already at the state level and it’s been assigned to us several years ago. It will allow us to go ahead and proceed with the project.”
The expansion will add eight to 10 new clinic rooms and health education classrooms, as well as a Women, Infants and Children program section and storage area.
Kent said the expansion will help the health department treat and prevent diabetes, one of the most chronic diseases in this area.
“This will allow us to tackle the most preventative diseases in our community,” Kent said. “We’re creating a nurse-managed diabetes program, and this will help in case managing people with diabetes. It will give them a place where they have a support group, educational groups. They can get the American diabetes education curriculum and have certain goals that allow people to manage their particular disease and even prevent it. We’re hoping to prevent it.”
He said five or six new employees will be hired and a similar number of existing employees will be moved to the new building.
“We’ll be able to do corporate wellness training,” Kent said. “We will be able to help corporations in our community and businesses create wellness programs. We’ll have experts for that. We’ll be able to do health fairs at a community level. Last year, we did the largest testing in the state of Florida. We had 308 volunteers, and we did about 3,000 tests last year.”
Figures from the health department show that for every 100,000 people over 18 with diabetes in Bay County, an average of 27.2 percent of them died from the disease or health ailments created by it from 2010 to 2012. The statewide average was 19.6 percent.
Figures also show that for every 100,000 people over 18 with diabetes in Bay County, 2,895 were hospitalized as a result of the disease from 2010 to 2012, which is higher than the statewide average of 2,291.
“It’s an epidemic,” said Jo Colvent, who coordinates diabetes treatment program for the health department.
She estimated that there are about 59,000 Bay County residents who have pre-diabetes that can develop into diabetes if not treated.
“There will be dedicated space (in the new building) for diabetes education,” she said. “We’ll automatically be able to increase the number of classes we have. We’ll be able to increase staff to accomplish the increase in our services, our classes and screenings.”
There will also be more examinations rooms, she said.
“We’ll be able to serve more people with less wait,” Colvent said.