LINCOLN – U.S. Sen. Susan Collins gave Health Access Network a ceremonial $5.1 million check on Wednesday, representing key funding to the health care provider’s plans to expand and consolidate its six town sites into one state-of-the-art facility.

The check, which came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rural development agency, symbolizes the federal government’s commitment to improving health care in northern Penobscot County, Collins said.

“Rural Development has been so critical to financing the ability to offer health care to so many people in Maine,” Collins said Wednesday. “It has such an important role to play in the health care community and to people insured or uninsured.

“It’s a tough economy that we are seeing right now,” she added. “With partnerships like this, you can expand peoples’ access to quality health care. This new building will create one-stop shopping for residents of this area.”

Collins also visited the Veterans Administration clinic on River Road – another key element in the area’s health care network, she said.

Since it opened 10 months ago, the primary-care clinic has grown to serve about 800 veterans from the Houlton area through the Lincoln Lakes and Katahdin regions, said Brian G. Stiller, medical center director at the Togus VA Medical Center. It can serve at least 1,400.

Health Access Network plans to build the 28,000-square-foot, two-story building at 175 West Broadway for primary care, mental health, podiatry, OB-GYN specialties and administrative services. It will be adjacent to the Lincoln Maine Federal Credit Union at 171 West Broadway.

The new building will help Health Access Network add 10 new jobs – including three primary-care doctors and two mental health professionals – to its 90-worker payroll. Health Access officials hope the project will spur more additions to the Lincoln Lakes region’s medical community.

With Bangor Savings Bank serving as the funding guarantor, the facility will have 23 exam rooms, 10 more than Network’s current offices, including a new state-of-the-art computerized records system that it will share with Penobscot Valley Hospital of Lincoln and Millinocket Regional Hospital, among others.

The system, which Network officials demonstrated for Collins during her visit, could help eliminate 20 percent of medical tests doctors order, typically due to confusion over records, Collins said.

“Nothing against doctors, but [with the system], we can actually read a doctor’s notes now,” Chief Executive Officer Dawn Cook joked.

The new building will go out to bid by the end of April with construction beginning by late May, Cook said. If all goes well, the new center will open in February 2009.

Health Access Network is a federally-funded community health center that handles 13,000 patients, or 50,000 visits, annually. It has a $7 million budget that includes $1.2 million in grant funding and offers $450,000 in health care discounts annually.

Health Access Network targets underinsured or low-income residents but also handles self-paying or commercially insured patients. It has 19 clinics or centers in Maine, including clinics in Enfield, Lincoln, Medway and Millinocket.

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