New Clayton health center 'a great asset'

CLAYTON — There are a lot of happy faces in the new Clayton Family Health Center on Strawberry Lane.

"The new building is wonderful. It's really clean and I think it's a great asset to the community," said Mamie A. Heath, who lives at Thousand Island Park on Wellesley Island.

Mrs. Heath said she has been a patron of the clinic for at least 25 years, and likes the larger facility and the new children's waiting room, which has toys for children.

The new 9,200-square-foot clinic, which is twice as big as the old facility, opened to patients in January and held an open house earlier this month to introduce its new medical facility to the river community.

The old clinic building was demolished by Bach Plumbing & Heating Co., Clayton. The site was turned into a parking lot.

"Everything is wider. The rooms feel bigger and more patient friendly," said Sonja M. Pierce, a family nurse practitioner at the clinic.

The clinic has 15 exam rooms, six more than the old clinic. It also has a new special treatment room, a larger laboratory and an X-ray suite.

Dr. Jack D. Rush said the clinic's partnership with Samaritan Medical Center, Watertown, since 1992 has helped it provide better access to health care for the surrounding community.

"This is the first clinic operated by Samaritan that has radiology equipment," said Laurie A. Horr, a registered nurse.

Dr. Rush said the old building provided two patient rooms per doctor. Now, every health-care professional at the clinic has three exam rooms for patients.

"It does make a difference," Dr. Rush said. "Each of us has an additional patient room."

Currently, six health-care professionals — Dr. Stephen T. Grybowski, Dr. John W. Jepma, Dr. Rush, Dr. Lewis Brendis and family nurse practitioners Sharen Yaworski and Ms. Pierce — and a staff of 15 full-time employees takes care of 75 to 100 patients per day, year-round.

Samaritan leased the property from the Clayton Improvement Association, which owns the building.

The association received loans of $1.295 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and $1.275 million from Key Bank to build the new facility. Samaritan has put forward $316,000 for the project.