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JBSA News
NEWS | Feb. 12, 2010

$10 million makeover leaves Randolph Clinic brighter, more spacious, patient-friendly

By Sean Bowlin 502nd Air Base Wing OL-B Public Affairs

Nearly 20 months after it began, a top-to-bottom construction makeover of the Randolph Air Force Base Clinic is almost a week away from completion.

"The main goal has been to brighten up the environment for patients," said Capt. Brian Bogumil, 359th Medical Group group practice manager. "We heard a lot of complaints from patients that it was very dark and gloomy here and that they felt sicker just coming in. So, we responded to that."

Captain Bogumil said that the Air Force responded with an expenditure of about $10 million in a project to make the clinic more patient-friendly, bright and easier to navigate through.

He said as part of the makeover re-construction, contactors moved walls around to give patients in waiting areas more room in which to sit. Contractors also repainted walls to brighter shades, put in brighter flooring and ceilings, replaced lobby and office furniture with more modern, comfortable, ergonomic selections and placed colorful works of art on clinic walls, in hallways and in patient waiting areas.

The long hallway spanning the building's front, which tended to channelize patients entering the formerly dark building, is gone, Captain Bogumil said. Large entrance areas leading into a spacious main waiting area are in the final stages of construction before project completion..

Captain Bogumil said contractors re-surfaced and re-striped the parking lot and added 66 new parking spaces there. Also, they placed handicapped parking spaces close to building entrances, xeriscaped the plants in the landscaping surrounding the clinic and to increase the amount of light inside the clinic, put sideways-leaning skylights in the roof.

Additionally, the contractors gutted bathrooms and completely re-constructed them from floor to ceiling to make them more accessible, brighter, easier to use and more attractive-looking.

With attractive, colorful, easy-to-read new signage on the brightly-painted walls, Capt. Bogumil added, patients will find it easier to navigate through the building on their way to treating and waiting areas.

Captain Bogumil also said another amenity for patients and clinicians will be a coffee bar, which will open in about one month. The Army and Air Force Exchange Service is searching for a contractor for the coffee bar now.

The base civil engineering project's manager, Juan Novan, said patients will feel better after being treated at the clinic as a result of the makeover.

"It was pretty dark in there before and it looked mundane," Mr. Novan added. "It didn't give you a good, healthy feeling. But now, it's bright; it's more alive."