OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Health officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday for the facility on North Doverplum Avenue.
The new center and its expanded services replace the much smaller and now dated facility next door.
Health officials and residents are all celebrating the arrival of medical care that better reflects this community.
Osceola County's new community health center opened Thursday morning. The two-story, 16,000-square-foot building will provide patients with dental checkups, women's health services and access to welfare programs.
Primary care will also be a big emphasis for the center.
The Florida Department of Health in Osceola County said it was time to catch up to the growing community needs, and the center represents that progress.
"Our goal was to have this building, a more permanent building, so the community's very excited about it," said Belinda Johnson-Cornett of the Department of Health.
Longtime resident Josephine Campos told Channel 9 she and her husband have been waiting 14 years for the center. Before Thursday, the closest hospital was 30 minutes away.
"Oh, yes. We needed it. We needed it," she said. "The population here is very large, and it's still growing. We needed something like this here."