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FINISHED PRODUCT: The Vidant Multispecialty Clinic in Belhaven took about a year to construct and cost more than $6 million.

READY TO GO: The multispecialty clinic is set to open Monday at 8 a.m. and is already taking appointments.

GETTING READY: As of Wednesday, doctors, nurses and medical employees were undergoing training at the new facility.

SPECIALTY CARE: One of the services offered at the clinic is X-ray technology.

MODERN MEDICAL: The new facility was built with modernity in mind, from the electronic records system to equipment with automatic on/off functions.

MEDICAL VETERAN: Dr. Gregory Jones, who has practiced medicine in Belhaven for 27 years, moved from his old office on East Water Street and into the new facility.

TRANSPORT: The clinic does not offer emergency care, but it does have a helicopter pad in case a patient needs to be transported in an emergency situation.

BELHAVEN — A new health care facility is set to open its doors Monday in Belhaven.

Vidant Health will debut its 24-hour, multispecialty clinic on Old County Road. Starting with a price tag at $4.2 million, the facility’s construction, which began last summer, ended up costing more than $6 million.

The clinic will combine the three Vidant Family Medicine practices in Belhaven under one roof, while also offering more specialized care at the same location, according to Dr. Gregory Jones, a 27-year physician whose old practice is located on East Water Street.

According to Jones, there is a wide variety of specialty care that will be available: ultrasound technology, physical therapy, X-ray capabilities, lab workspaces, cardiology consults, prenatal care, on-site health coach and regular primary care, to name several.

There are 19 exam rooms in the clinic, as well as a treatment room for biopsies or lacerations. The clinic is staffed with two doctors, three nurse practitioners and two physician’s assistants, and Vidant is looking to recruit a third doctor in house.

“This clinic, for one thing, is located conveniently for (patients) to be able to walk from their neighborhood,” Jones said. “We will be seeing primary care patients from the cradle to the grave.”

Not only that, Jones is excited to use the 100-percent electronic records system, as well as Dragon dictation equipment to record notes.

“For 27 years I’ve been here, and I’ve been on a paper system,” he said. “This will remedy that problem (of redundancy).”

Another feature of the multispecialty clinic is its emergency vehicle access and helicopter pad for emergency transports. The pad is built to accommodate helicopters from the Coast Guard to EastCare, according to Shelton Nelson, administrator of regional operations at Vidant Medical Group.

Jones estimated a helicopter could take a patient from the clinic to Vidant Medical Center in Greenville within 20 minutes, as well as travel to Washington in less time than that.

Despite the positive features, Vidant’s new clinic has been under much scrutiny from some Belhaven residents and town officials.

After Vidant Pungo Hospital closed in 2014 due to operating on a deficit, the Pantego Creek LLC membership, which owns the hospital property, and Vidant agreed on building the new clinic.

However, some residents feel as though the clinic is merely a glorified doctor’s office and argue the town needs its hospital back. As part of the Save the Hospital campaign, some residents have rallied against Pantego Creek, demanding the hospital be handed over, so a $6 million United States Department of Agriculture loan can be secured to help with reopening costs.

The Town of Belhaven and state NAACP are also pursuing a lawsuit against Vidant and Pantego Creek, alleging breach of contract, unfair trade practices, breach of fiduciary duty and fraud. The lawsuit was sent to the Court of Appeals after Superior Court Judge Stuart Albright threw it out in October.

Mayor Adam O’Neal has repeatedly expressed his belief that Vidant is allegedly undermining the reopening of the hospital. He has also spoke out regarding the need for an emergency room to serve the Belhaven area and part of Hyde County.

With the closest emergency facility in Washington, O’Neal said patients have a lesser chance of receiving life-saving help in time.

Jones said the new clinic is representative of the new trend toward outpatient services in rural health care, and Belhaven’s physicians would never have been able to afford such specialty services on their own.

“The facility here is as modern as it gets,” he said. “It allows us to be more efficient.”

Jones also said he thinks having a modernized facility will help to attract more physicians to the area, a difficult task for many rural areas.

“It’s just so many opportunities,” he said.

The Vidant Multispecialty Clinic is located at 598 W. Old County Road in Belhaven. It opens Monday at 8 a.m. For more information or to set up an appointment, call 252-943-0600.

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