Jordan Valley plans January opening for $12M clinic

Jordan Valley Community Health Center is poised to fully open its new clinic Jan. 3 in a former Price Cutter grocery store.

The facility, which Jordan Valley officials said cost $12 million, was dedicated Dec. 15 as the Roy Blunt Center for Family Health and Wellness, in honor of the longtime local politician, who officially retires Jan. 3 from the U.S. Senate. The 50,500-square-foot building at 1720 W. Grand St., near the intersection with Kansas Expressway, incorporates two suites. One holds a procedure clinic that fills 15,000 square feet, and the other houses the 23,000-square-foot women and children’s clinic, set to open next week. The procedure clinic opened in June and has provided oral surgery services for over 700 patients to date, according to a news release.

“There’s an additional 12,000 square feet that is shell space that has been undecided what we will use that for at this point,” said Dr. Matthew Stinson, Jordan Valley Community Health Center executive vice president.

Branco Enterprises Inc. served as general contractor, and BRP Architects was architect for the project, which began in 2021. Jordan Valley purchased the building and surrounding, vacant acreage in December 2020 for $2.9 million, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. Twelve acres at the southeast corner of Grand Street and Kansas Expressway was bequeathed to College of the Ozarks in 2012, while Price Cutter continued to own the building.

After Jordan Valley closed on the purchase, the property initially was used as a COVID-19 vaccine administration site for several months, according to past reporting.

“It’s always a little bit of anxiety, making sure that it is ready for patients come through there,” Stinson said, in advance of next week’s women and children’s clinic opening. “You just never know if everything is going to work on day one. On the other hand, there’s a lot of excitement. That site has done a lot of things already for the community. This is kind of the next phase.”

Stinson said the women and children’s clinic has 28 medical exam rooms and three ultrasound rooms, and will offer behavioral health, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech and vision services. Many of the 100-employee staff will transfer from Jordan Valley’s clinic on Tampa Street, he said, adding the pediatric clinic manager is Rebekah Hightower and Leah Olson is the women’s health manager. Jessica Johns is the oral surgery nurse manager.

Once the facility fully opens, it will become the second-largest clinic for Jordan Valley, after its 70,000-square-foot center and headquarters downtown, according to officials. The health care system provides medical, dental, vision and behavioral health services to underserved individuals in 23 counties in southwest Missouri. It will be the health care system’s fourth clinic in Springfield and eighth in the Ozarks, according to its website.