A visit to the pediatrician won’t be nearly as demanding forsick children and their mothers after Monday, when the BrookhavenChildren’s Clinic officially opens shop in its new, expansiveoffice.

The clinic has packed up its staff and equipment and moved fromHighway 51 to 601 Brookman Drive, Suite A, into a new facility withapproximately 11,000 square feet of floor space and several newfeatures. Nurse Manager JoAnne Fauver said the new facility and itscomforts would help decrease patient wait times and allow theclinic’s three pediatricians to see as many as 40 patients per dayeach.

“We just needed to upgrade,” she said of the new office. “We hadreally outgrown our old facility because our patient load hastripled, at least, in size.”

Fauver said the new facility has 16 examination rooms, aspacious, better-equipped laboratory and a well waiting room toseparate sick and well children in the lobby. The bigger lab willallow the clinic to run more tests on-site, while the well waitingroom was the most-requested feature from area mothers, shesaid.

The new clinic is also equipped with a digital X-ray machine,allowing images to be viewed immediately on office computers andquickly e-mailed to other physicians; a machine to measure completeblood count; and a chemistry analyzer that can produce fast andaccurate diagnostics.

The advanced equipment and spacious confines of the new clinicwill allow much faster patient turnover, Fauver said, a good thingconsidering the clinic’s patients come from not only Brookhaven,but from Natchez, Hattiesburg and other places in and beyondSouthwest Mississippi.

“We can take care of patients in a more timely manner, move theminto rooms quicker and have more rooms in which to see them,” saidDr. Mitch Holland, one of the clinic’s pediatricians. “It’s nicejust to be able to have a nice, new facility to take care of allour patients in.”

Serving alongside Holland in Brookhaven Children’s Clinic areDr. Tim Shann and Dr. David Braden, a pediatric cardiologist, andpediatric nurse practitioner Jennifer Cook. Fauver and Holland saidDr. Rusty Reid, a pediatric dentist, may also start operating outof a wing of the facility, and clinic officials hope to bring inmore pediatric specialists for weekly visits.

The new clinic was built by King’s Daughters Medical Center andis being leased to Brookhaven’s Children Clinic. KDMC ChiefDevelopment Officer Johnny Rainer said the hospital commonlyconstructs and leases new offices to practices to help bolsterBrookhaven’s medical community.

“We are expanding health care in Lincoln County,” he said. “It’snice to see facilities being upgraded, expanded and made new. It’sall going to help the community as far as health care access.”