New Women and Children’s Health Center opens in Aiken | Aiken Area News

Rural Health Services continued its celebration of National Health Center Week with a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its newest facility Aug. 6.

The 19,645-square-foot Emanuel-McClain Women and Children’s Health Center is at 995 Clyburn Place in Aiken.

Decorations for the special occasion included lots of purple, black and white balloons.

Participants were showered with purple confetti.

The building is named in honor of Carolyn Emanuel-McClain, who has served as Rural Health Services’s CEO since 2009.

“This moment is a testament to… our commitment to advance health care for some of the most vulnerable members of our community,” Emanuel-McClain said. “This represents a vision that we all have worked tirelessly to bring to life — a vision where women and children will receive the highest quality of care tailored to their unique needs.”

She described the Women and Children’s Health Center as a place where “compassionate care and cutting-edge medical technology come together.”

It also is a place “where families will find support, where mothers will receive the care they deserve and children will grow healthy and strong,” Emanuel-McClain said.

“As we cut this ribbon today, we are not just opening the doors,” she continued. “We are opening new opportunities for health, hope and healing in our community. This will serve as a commitment to the community for a brighter, healthier future for all.”

In addition to Rural Health Services’ board of directors and staff, Emanuel-McClain thanked elected officials.

More than $8 million in federal money paid for the construction of the Women and Children’s Health Center, its infrastructure and its furnishings, Emanuel-McClain told the Aiken Standard.

Previously, women and children received services from providers who worked at the neighboring Clyburn Center for Primary Care.

Now, “they won’t have to be cramped in the other building (Clyburn Center), where we only had room for one or two pediatric providers,” Emanuel-McLain said. “In here, we’re going to have four or five pediatric providers and about three or four OB-GYN (obstetrics and gynecology) providers. They will be able to see tremendously more patients than they see in the other building over there. Then we also can space out [at the Clyburn Center] and let adult medicine, podiatry, optometry and the pharmacy expand like they need to do.”