A 24,000-square-foot expansion at Conroe’s Lone Star Family Health Center main campus is open and in use by patients and staff after the project started in November 2023.
A dedication of the new two-story $11.4 million space took place Tuesday afternoon, showcasing a large addition to the building that includes more medical exam rooms, a dedicated mental-health suite, an expanded patient intake area, upstairs office space, additional pharmacy space and additional meeting and break room space for the staff.
WATER WOES: Conroe to restore water to Calfee Middle School after negotiations with Willis ISD
“It’s wonderful” said Karen Harwell, chief executive officer at Lone Star Family Health Center of the expanded area. “This has provided us the space to add behavioral health and new services. Now we’re in the space and we now know the area we have to work with and how it has changed the workflow. We can focus on service expansion.”
She said the staff is loving the new corridor created between the older portion of the building and the new expansion because it acts as a good landing space for those entering the building.
“That tends to be a nice gathering space for those who maybe don’t know where to go or what they need to get started and qualified,” she said. “It’s right there; it is an easy way to come in and know where to start.”
Lone Star Family Health Center has its headquarters in Conroe and is a full-service federally qualified health center and nonprofit. The group was founded in 2002.
Medical, dental, women’s health and mental-health services are provided through the facility. In addition to the Conroe hub, services are offered across five clinic locations in Willis, Spring, Grangerland and Huntsville.
NEW STORES: Home Depot, Lowes to expand footprints in Montgomery County with new locations
The expansion will allow for 3,000 more patients to be treated at the center, as reported by the Courier of Montgomery County in late 2024 as the building neared completion.
Ground was broken for the project in November 2023. The expansion was funded by a combination of the facility’s cash reserves, a term loan, federal grant funds and private funds, according to Courtney Galle, the center’s marketing and communications manager.
Harwell said the new second-story clinic in the expansion opened in January and the expansion project was fully complete in April.