LA PINE, OR -- The new St. Charles Family Care Clinic in La Pine is now expected to open next spring. 

Originally slated to open at the end of this year, St. Charles Medical Group President John Weinsheim says the facility will now open in April 2018. "Due to some changes to the requirements we had for infrastructure on-site and some site improvements, we needed to push that opening date back a little bit. Those delays created some challenges with us starting some improvements, themselves. So, we’re able to now move forward, given the change in seasons, to start some of the site improvements in March."

Crews will begin road, utility and site prep work over the next few weeks. "The location, which is just off of Huntington Road on the northwest side of La Pine, is in a very nice wooded area," Weinsheim tells KBND News. "You’ll start to see that site take shape. The first thing you’ll see, of course, is the site parking area developed. And then, our building will start to go up towards the middle of the year." 

He says the St. Charles Foundation is close to reaching its $1.5-million fundraising goal for construction and they’ve already started recruiting doctors to staff the clinic. "So, we’ll have room for three primary care providers, as well as a fully-staffed urgent care; we’ll have imaging and lab services, on-site. We’ll be providing access to occupational services there, as well – so things like drug screens."