Staff at Branch Health Clinic Naval Air Station Oceana celebrated with their patients by cutting the ribbon together for the newly relocated Pediatric Clinic, Aug. 3.

Cmdr. Elisabet Prieto, officer in charge, and Shawna Hicksmumford, primary care clinic manager, welcomed guests before inviting pediatric patients of all ages to join them in cutting the ribbon.

The relocation of the clinic allowed for the patients to have a larger, safer and more inclusive area.

"We have around 5,000 children that we see here and previously we didn't have a contained space for the kids," Hicksmumford said. "Our pediatric hallway had our patients sitting with the general population, and that can have heavy traffic as it's near our entrance."

Along with gaining their own space, the clinic also now has separate areas for healthy children and sick children.

"We see patients as young as 2-weeks old here," Hicksmumford said. "As a parent you don't want your healthy newborn to be sitting right next to a sick child."

The clinic is equipped to handle healthy child visits, sports physicals, asthma testing, same-day appointments, and nurse manage clinic, similar to sick call.

In addition, Hicksmumford ensured the patients now had rooms for IV treatment that would make them more comfortable.

"This gives our patients and their parents a room to hang out in, that is in more of a pediatric setting with games, similar to what the hospital does on the pediatric wing," Hicksmumford said.

Prieto thanked the guests for the attendance and shared why this was a special day for her.

"I am a pediatric provider myself so this is very special for me," Prieto said. "I want to thank Shawna for driving this. It's been a gargantuan effort. Our corpsman worked super hard to move everything around and get this painted."

The process started six months ago with the planning and organization. The physical move only took one day due to the corpsman working a 12-hour day without interruption to patient care.

"Our patients are thrilled; we had four children this morning just ecstatic," Prieto said. "This is something that civilian providers do too, and it's exciting to see that the Navy is setting the standard across the board."

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