Joshua McCoy/Daily NewsThe new Fairview Community Health Center is open and will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony next week.

Where employees once dealt with shelves bursting with medical files, they now move easily in a spacious room with sliding cabinets.

Where patients once passed time in a cramped waiting room, they now enjoy a high-ceilinged lobby lighted by rows of windows.

And where the name once was the Bowling Green-Warren County Primary Care Center, it’s now the Fairview Community Health Center, and it’s open for business.

The brand-new facility on Fairview Avenue across from the Bowling Green Fire Department has been seeing patients since March 31, said Executive Director Chris Keyser, and will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10:30 a.m. April 19, with facility tours to continue until 5 p.m.

In the weeks since its opening, the new facility has proven more convenient than the center’s previous location, said Wathetta Buford, outgoing president of the health center’s board of directors.

&#8220I’m impressed with the space – the whole intake procedure,” she said. &#8220Before, we were down in the basement of the (Barren River District) Health Department, and everything was just cluttered. Reception and intake and checkout was just right there together.”

Buford and the board had their first meeting Friday in the second-story conference room, a pale yellow-and-purple space with frosted glass doors, a projector and a large television. The board toured the facility, she said, and she was excited to see the difference between &#8220before” and &#8220after.”

&#8220It is wonderful, it is gorgeous,” she said. &#8220It won’t be as crowded, and I just think it’s wonderful, I do.”

During a short tour this morning, Keyser and Finance Manager Adam Craft pointed out the center’s many amenities: four dental chairs, five &#8220pods” with three exam rooms each, plus a work space, and, best of all, office space for the whole staff to work in the same building. Previously, Craft said, the finance department rented space in Bowling Green Towers, which meant he’d often go days without seeing many of his co-workers.

&#8220It’s nice having everything under one roof,” Keyser said. &#8220We kind of felt like two families. (Now) it’s a cohesive unit, and we feel that as well.”

The new facility, painted in shades of yellow, purple, blue and green, sports a 14,000-square-foot blueprint, nearly double the size of the center’s previous location. With the increase in space came room for separate stations for prescription pick-up, billing questions, check-in and check-out, Keyser said, which is especially helpful since the clinic’s more than 5,000 patients are charged on a sliding scale based on income. A private window provides more confidentiality when discussing billing matters, she said.

&#8220It just makes coming to the doctor a little easier,” she said of the lobby space, which also features two televisions and easily accessible restrooms and water fountains.

The building’s location – the back half is literally built into the hillside – came in handy on Friday when tornado warnings were issued, Keyser said, and the white-and-brick facade &#8220adds a lot to the neighborhood surrounding us.”

As its name implies, the Fairview Community Health Center plans to do outreach projects to make the community aware of the programs it offers, Keyser said. Patients who use the emergency room for non-emergency maladies are welcome there, she said, as well as patients without health insurance.

In a partnership with student hygienists at Western Kentucky University and the University of Louisville, the facility will host an April 22 Hispanic health fair, Keyser said, and will also host a Medicaid health fair sometime in the future.

&#8220We are here for the community in whatever way we can,” she said. &#8220We want our doors to always be open.”

– For more information, contact the Fairview Community Health Center at 783-3573.