WELLFLEET – Outer Cape Health Services is one step closer to expanding its services in Wellfleet.
The organization’s Wellfleet Health Center renovation and expansion project was unanimously approved last month by the Conservation Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals, along with receiving the unanimous recommendation of the Planning Board.
Plans call for a 2,500 square-foot expansion with added parking, drainage and other site improvements for the Route 6 facility.
Outer Cape Health Services CEO Patricia Nadle said they are delighted to move forward with the project.
“Now we are putting the bid documents together because that allows us to start that process and hopefully we’ll get the bid documents out for contractor bids over the next several weeks,” she said.
Construction is scheduled to begin sometime this fall with an expected completion date of June 2019 for the project.
The new center has been designed by DBVW Architects and features an enhanced site plan that will allow for a more coordinated, team-based medical experience for patients.
“It will have nine very large medical exam rooms, two behavioral health rooms, a WIC office for moms and children for the nutritional program that we run,” Nadle said.
There will also be room to offer its Health Connections program to help patients find insurance, along with lab facilities.
The project will increase the size of the current center by about 50 percent.
“It’s a very tricky lot,” Nadle said. “We really are restricted to build on the same footprint.”
This will require the facility to be closed from when construction begins in the fall until its completion in June.
A plan is in place to redirect patients to the organization’s other health centers in Provincetown and the new Harwich facility.
Nadle said the expansion will help Outer Cape Health Services make a dent in access to health care on the Outer Cape.
“When you think about the real Outer Cape towns we are the only game in town for a lot of folks,” she said. “We are sort of the resource for the communities that are out there so it’s critical that we are open and back up and running in a space that’s going to be contemporary.”
Outer Cape Health Services centers offer primary care, specialty and urgent care, behavioral health and dental services. It also operates two pharmacies in Provincetown and Wellfleet, along with many other specialty programs.
In 2016, the organization served nearly 17,000 residents and visitors to the Lower and Outer Cape annually with more than 70,000 total visits.
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