Breaking Ground

Exciting changes are coming to Variety Care! We all know about the ongoing construction projects at our Lafayette and Straka clinics, but did you know we are also building three new clinics from the ground up? On top of that, we have recently unveiled a new mobile dental van and are anticipating the arrival of a mobile mammography unit!

Variety Care Executive Vice President and CFO

Tim Reddout says that one of the biggest projects is the complete remodel and 8000-square-foot addition at Straka. “That expansion and remodel will add six additional providers,” Reddout explains. The estimated completion date for that project is September 2024. The remodel of our Lafayette clinic will add four new providers and is expected to be completed in November 2023.

Recently, ground was broken on the first of three new clinics – Crooked Oak. Interim COO Shauna O’Brien says there’s already a Variety Care RN embedded in the elementary, serving approximately 1700 students. “She helps with vision screenings, she does dental screenings, and she oversees immunization statuses,” O’Brien says. “Now there will be a brick-and-mortar across the street.”

The Crooked Oak health center will have pediatrics and behavioral health, as well as telehealth. The project is expected to be completed in April 2024 and will add four providers. “It’s a very high-need area for the patient population that we serve,” Reddout says. Not only will it provide new services to Crooked Oak schools, but the surrounding community as well. He explains that the addition will alleviate the number of patients seen at Mid-Del.

Currently, the land is being finalized on the other two clinics being built – Yukon and Norman. The identical, 22,000-square-foot integrated healthcare centers will each have 12 providers. “It gets back to our model,” Reddout commends. “One location, surrounded by all of our services.” He explains that our Norman patients are currently traveling to

Straka for dental services, but once the new clinic is completed in December 2025, they will have access to everything you would find in our other major clinics.

The clinic in Yukon currently has four providers, but once the new health center is completed in December 2025, it will have the potential for 12 providers!

Other projects in the works include a mobile mammography unit that is expected to arrive in the next 12-14 months and a Straka distribution center that will be used for inventory storage, including fleet vehicles.

While the construction projects seem quite costly, Reddout explains that they were paid for largely in part or in full by government and grant monies.

Percentage Covered by Grants

He says both the mobile mammography unit and the mobile dental unit were paid for by American Rescue Plan dollars.

Additionally, Reddout excitedly notes that despite schedules being decreased by 25% during the Epic transition, Variety Care just finished the fiscal year right on budget!