Groundbreaking for combined health and dental clinic

Published Nov. 4, 2011
Members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Far East District, along with representatives from the 65th Medical Brigade and U.S. Army Garrison Daegu break ground on the new combined health and dental clinic for Camp Carroll Nov. 3. This facility will include a troop medical clinic, preventive medicine facilities, and after hours walk-in care facilities and replace the out-dated, existing troop medical clinic and dental clinic. (Photo by Patrick Bray)

Members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Far East District, along with representatives from the 65th Medical Brigade and U.S. Army Garrison Daegu break ground on the new combined health and dental clinic for Camp Carroll Nov. 3. This facility will include a troop medical clinic, preventive medicine facilities, and after hours walk-in care facilities and replace the out-dated, existing troop medical clinic and dental clinic. (Photo by Patrick Bray)

SEOUL, Republic of Korea — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Far East District has begun construction on a new combined health and dental clinic for Camp Carroll near Daegu with a groundbreaking ceremony held Nov. 3. 

This facility will include a troop medical clinic, preventive medicine facilities, and after hours walk-in care facilities. Other services will include radiology, laboratory, pharmacy, dental facilities, and other support facilities.

Norm Boeman, Deputy Chief of Construction Division, represented FED at the ceremony.

“Today marks the beginning of another phase of quality of life improvement for the Camp Carroll community,” said Boeman.  “One of the most important things we do is taking care of Soldiers, civilians, and families.”

This project will replace the out-dated, existing troop medical clinic and the existing dental clinic which the community has outgrown.  The current troop medical clinic is a converted barracks and still retains that appearance.

“When completed, our beneficiaries will greatly appreciate the most modern health care facility in U.S. Forces Korea to date,” said Col. Rafael De Jesus, 65th Medical Brigade Commander.

Col. Kathleen Gavle, U.S. Army Garrison Daegu Commander was also in attendance.  She talked about the positive impact on morale that a new state-of-the-art facility can provide.

“This combined health and dental clinic will greatly improve the quality of care, not in the sense of better medical professionals—ours are very good, but to improve the effectiveness of the providers through better patient flow, access to different technologies, and the space that they need to perform,” said Gavle.

Gavle also talked about how the new combined health and dental clinic represents an ongoing commitment to the U.S. Army and the commitment to take care of Soldiers no matter where they serve.
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“These improvements will in turn increase the overall readiness of our Soldiers here at Camp Carroll,” said Gavle.  “This project represents our commitment to continuing development of our enduring hub.”

In addition to the primary facility, existing roads around the new combined health and dental clinic will be realigned and site improvements will be made to include sidewalks, utilities, and services to support the new building. 

The site was also selected due to proximity to the barracks on Camp Carroll.  The old medical and dental clinics were located much farther away.  As an additional part of the contract, these old buildings will be demolished and their sites left clean.