With a growing number of patients, Powell’s Heritage Health Center is looking to remodel its downtown office.

“We are running out of space very quickly in our current building,” says Heritage Health Center Executive Director Colette Mild.

Heritage Health is seeking a roughly $100,000 grant from the Wyoming Department of Health to turn some open space into another examination room and to buy a vehicle to assist patients who lack transportation.

The nonprofit community health center reported seeing 1,547 patients last year — a more than 60 percent jump from the prior year.

After starting with just four employees in 2015, Heritage Health now has around 11 full-time employees and is looking to add a part-time office worker and another full-time medical assistant, Mild said.

“We really have kind of exploded, which is a great thing, but it also adds a need for things like this [grant], where we can expand without cutting into [our] operating budget,” she told Park County commissioners last week.

Heritage Health’s annual budget currently stands at roughly $1.4 million, with the majority of the money coming from federal grants, Mild said. Other revenue comes from local grants and from payments from patients, their insurance companies or Medicare and Medicaid. The center bills on a sliding scale, with lower charges for folks with lower incomes.

Mild said the three current exam rooms just aren’t enough space for Heritage Health’s two providers. Adding another room should allow the clinic to see more patients, provide better privacy for things like blood draws, make the office layout more efficient for staff and ultimately lead to better quality care, she said.

One of the costlier items included in the grant proposal is a request for three exam beds — expected to cost around $8,000 each — that should make examinations much more effective than the chairs that are sometimes used now, she said.

As for the hope of acquiring a vehicle, “transportation is a struggle in Park County,” Mild said.

Heritage Health currently partners with the Powell Senior Citizens Center so patients can use that organization’s shuttle, “but it’s limited to in-town and [in] when it’s available,” she said — noting that there are instances where patients need immediate care in Billings or Cody.

If Heritage Health can get a vehicle, either center employees or volunteers could drive patients to appointments, Mild said.

She laid out the plans to county commissioners at their meeting last week in requesting a letter of support for the Heritage Health’s request for a Wyoming Primary Care Support grant.

Commissioners unanimously agreed to send one.

“We greatly appreciate the services of Heritage Health Center in our communities and look forward to their continued service to Park County,” the commission wrote in part.

Before the vote, Commissioner Tim French asked whether the center was competing with Powell Valley Hospital.

“In a sense of, do we provide the same service that the ... Powell clinic provides, yes, it’s primary care services. But it’s a very different model,” Mild said. “It’s a model that works for some patients that may not work for others.”

For instance, she indicated that a person with a low income and no insurance would only pay $20 for a visit to Heritage Health while they’d likely face a bigger, full bill at Powell Valley Healthcare.

Heritage Health “has a great working relationship” with PVHC, Mild said. The Powell hospital provides a discount on lab work and X-ray services and also refers patients to Heritage Health “all the time,” she said.

“Anybody who goes to the ER who doesn’t have insurance and is discharged, it’s pretty much a call to us to get them scheduled on our schedule so that we’re doing some of that follow-up care,” Mild said, adding, “Our goal is to help their readmission rates so people aren’t continuing to use the ER when they can’t afford to pay to utilize [other] resources.”

Heritage Health’s growth included adding a licensed clinical social worker last year, who provides behavioral and mental health treatment that’s integrated with other care offered at the center.

Mild expects the Wyoming Department of Health to make a decision on Heritage Health’s new grant application in the coming months.

To raise additional support for the organization, Heritage Health plans to host its first-ever community fundraiser this fall, she said.