A Groundbreaking Healthcare Facility

To imagine something new brings positivity to mind. To see it come to fruition is a dream come true. It may have been a cloudy day, but a light shown on the new Loma Linda University Health San Bernardino Campus, which will house the San Manuel Gateway College and the new SACHS Clinic, highlighting what is yet to come. Construction of the $68 million project is more than halfway [75%] completed on the 151,870-square-foot building that stands on 9.33 acres of land. The facility will contain 112 exam rooms, 24 dental rooms, and 5 group rooms with plenty of room for quality care. The project is well within budget and on schedule to be completely functional by July of this year. The third floor is reserved for the San Manuel Gateway College which will contain 4 classrooms and 3 teaching labs. Its largest classroom will be 2,177 square feet and capable of streaming class lectures from anywhere. In attendance on the grand tour of the new facility was Richard Hart, MD DrPH, Loma Linda University Health President; Arwyn Wild, San Manuel Gateway College Executive Director; Congressman Pete Aguilar; Enrique Armenta, Staff to Congressman Aguilar; Honorable Patrick Morris, City of San Bernardino former Mayor; Dale Marsden, San Bernardino City Unified School District Superintendent; and Greg Devereaux, San Bernardino County Chief Executive Officer. Outside, the face of the building is almost completed with the final touches being put on. With excitement and anticipation the group donned safety vest and hardhats then made its way inside. The group walked through a hallway filled with lifts, construction equipment, and an assortment of tools working their way to the kitchen area. The kitchen will be capable of serving staff, students and members of the community. Dr. Hart drove home the point of nutrition in the San Bernardino area, “We keep hearing this, there is no real pharmacy or restaurants in downtown San Bernardino. This is within two blocks walking distance from the new courthouse and a lot of facilities there. We trust that when some of those folks come here, they will feel welcome." Representative Pete Aguilar was quick to add, “Dale and I have our pizza order. Do you want that now? Or at the end of the tour?” “We’re ready,” Dr. Hart responded enthusiastically. Ready was the sentiment and spirits where high as the group energetically made its way up and down stairways with skeletons of scaffolding propelling skyward. Eyes gazed in every direction imagining what is still yet to come, potential filling every void. The clinic will be sixty percent primary care, capable of providing radiology, phlebotomy, and pharmacy services, just to name a few. The clinic will also be able to have up to 700 residents at anytime. Moving through the corridors of the behavior health area, consultation rooms line each side of the hallway with freshly painted walls awaiting the final touches to be completed. Dr. Hart takes a moment to express what is on his mind, “If I can make a case for mental health this is probably one of America's greatest tragedies in my view, is the underfunding for mental health services. It causes a lot of problems in many different ways. So, we made a major commitment to having a large counseling center here that will be for patients of course as well as training students.” Room by room and down every hall, so much work within a year has been done. Entering inside one of the three labs Dr. Hart commented on a key asset of the simulation lab, “In the old days we practiced on you guys. But now everybody wants us to practice on manikins. So these are computer controlled manikins that you can make do all sorts of things. Have arrhythmias, have a heart attack all sorts of things you can do with these things. And while the student is working on them you can actually computer control them [manikins] and throw [students] curves to confuse them and make them work through, and deal with emergencies, and so on. Some of these, the more sophisticated ones can have babies; you can do surgeries on them, all sorts of stuff. I guess I can tell this, Garner Holt many of you know that runs Garner Holt industries produces all the simulation for Disneyland. He’s talking to us about combining medical simulation with some of his characters. In a way that makes these very life like so, you really feel like you’re working a real person when do this.” San Manuel Gateway College Executive Director Arwyn Wild pointed out the fact that, “Each one of these rooms is going to be equipped with two plasma TVs. It’s going to have the capability of having a camera right over the teacher's work station so anything that the teacher does or anything that the students do can be not only seen here but it can also be transmitted to other classrooms. So if we have classes that are larger than can accommodate the space, we can have one teacher running the lecture part or the demonstration part and more than one classroom being able to take part.” Students will be able to study and learn within a classroom setting, then make their way down stairs to the clinic for hands-on training for a fully-immersive educational experience. The group found its way to the exit, climbing back down the stairs, conversing on all that has been seen and done. Health care has changed dramatically within that last few years and Linda University Health San Bernardino Campus is adept to be the catalyst in the driver seat.