By Fallan Patterson
Staff Writer

The Osceola County Health Department was awarded an $8.3 million grant last week to expand its operation by building a new facility in Poinciana and adding buildings to two other agency properties.

The grant is part of the $25 million awarded to Florida from the $727 million of federal money allocated to 143 community health centers across the nation for construction and renovation needs.

For five years, Health Department staff has worked to acquire funding to build a permanent facility in Poinciana, which would replace the portable modular placed at the site in 2005.

“It was thought it would only be there for a couple years,” Belinda Johnson-Cornett, administrator of the Health Department, said. “It was built to be temporary. The timing of this money is very good.”

The Poinciana building, which will be built on the same property the modular now sits on, would include a new dental unit and an increase in the number of exam rooms from five in the modular to 27 in the permanent facility. This would be the second dental unit in a Health Department facility; the other is at the main building on Boggy Creek Road in Kissimmee.

The cost of the Poinciana project is $5.7 million with the remainder of the grant going toward adding a 4,000-square-foot building to both the St. Cloud and Stadium Place properties. The St. Cloud facility is at 1050 Grape Ave., while the Stadium Place facility is on Bill Beck Boulevard in Kissimmee. The St. Cloud facility will increase from 10 to 21 exam rooms and Stadium Place will grow from 19 to 30 examination rooms with the new buildings.

Osceola County Commissioner Brandon Arrington, whose district includes Poinciana, said Health Department staff should be commended for its “continued efforts at bringing state and federal dollars home to Osceola.”

“It is very exciting that the Poinciana Health Department is getting a permanent home. The portables had served their purpose but a bigger facility was needed,” Arrington said.  “This grant will allow us to further expand medical opportunities for our community, especially for the under-served. The two-story structure also will be a nice improvement aesthetically to the neighborhood.”

Florida ranks fourth in the nation with 20.9 percent uninsured residents and the Orlando-Kissimmee metro area has 21.2 percent uninsured persons, according to the Census Bureau.

“There's a lot of increase of uninsured and underinsured across the county,” Johnson-Cornett said. “The grant will enable us to expand primary care services and provide a medical home to more of the uninsured and others in our county who are in need of medical care.”

In addition to helping residents seeking medical care by expanding facilities, Johnson-Cornett said she hopes the money helps the local economy. Construction contracts will be by competitive bid and once the additional building is complete, more staff and doctors will be needed to see patients.

“Eventually, as we expand into those rooms, we will need additional staffing of various levels,” Johnson-Cornett said. “That would be our hope, that the money will stimulate the local economy and that we keep the money here.”