$2 million dental lab breaks ground in Porterville

Construction began Monday on two new facilities being built by Family HealthCare Network, one being a $2 million dental complex in Porterville, the other a new $3 million health center in Goshen.

When completed later in the year, the two projects will dramatically expand FHCN’s Central Valley footprint, said spokesman George Lurie.

Porterville’s dental clinic — a free-standing, 4,500 square feet dental center — will include 12 dental operatories. Once completed, it will replace the existing six-operatories dental facility housed on the second floor of the Porterville HealthCare Network clinic, 1107 W. Poplar Ave.

The $2 million project was funded by the issuance of tax-exempt bonds. BJ Perch Construction, Inc. of Visalia is the contractor on the project.

“We’re very excited about finalizing our Porterville campus with a state-of-the-art dental facility,” said FHCN CEO Harry Foster. “We’ve always felt that health care did not stop at the neck and have come to learn how critical it is to integrate all of our services.”

The Network’s other project is a $3 million health center at Riggin Avenue and Road 72 in Goshen. That project is being funded by a grant from the USDA and also being built by BJ Perch.

The new Goshen center will replace a smaller, existing FHCN clinic on Road 67.

“It is very gratifying to be able to follow through on our promise made to the people of Goshen around the turn of the century to one day have a new facility that includes all of our integrated services,” said Foster. “The new Goshen health center will not only fulfill that commitment, but also provide us with a facility designed around the implementation of our Patient Centered Health Home (PCHH), including the potential for new specialty services.”

Together with the organization’s new Woodlake health center, Family HealthCare’s Goshen facility will serve as a model for FHCN’s new PCHH health care system, which will be rolled out in Woodlake later in the spring.

FHCN’s new Farmersville health center will open in early February and a new Woodlake health center, which will replace an existing FHCN clinic, is scheduled to open in May.

Now headquartered in Visalia, FHCN has nearly 700 employees, including more than 110 physicians, psychologists, dentists and mid-level providers and currently operates facilities at 13 Central Valley locations throughout Tulare and Kings Counties.