RICHMOND, Va. — Daily Planet Health Services’ portfolio continues to grow as it expects to serve clients at its new health center on Monday.
Renovations are nearly complete at the East Cary Health Center located at 24 East Cary Street in Richmond’s downtown.
The nonprofit purchased the former Senior Connections headquarters in August 2023. Crews worked overtime and on weekends to get the dental wing up and running as they continued to work on medical and specialty rooms.
Crews repurposed marble from the bathrooms to finish the check-in counter. The massive building’s HVAC and sprinkler systems received major renovation among other upgrades.
“The rest of this first floor is our medical clinic and exam rooms, our break room, our dental laboratories, our closed dental laboratories for portable sedation. It'll be the first time we've been able to offer portable sedation. It's increasing and expanding access to care like nothing else that we've done,” said Sarah Tunner, Daily Planet’s director of development.
The opening of this new 25,000-square-foot clinic is the 11th facility for the nonprofit that includes its physical and partner locations.
“We aren't closing any of those other locations. This is a true expansion. There are eight dental chairs in this building alone. There are seven between our West Grace and South Side locations. We are more than doubling our dental capacity,” Tunner explained.
Brent Mast, Daily Planet’s chief administrative officer, said that about two years ago, they identified the need for more space to serve underserved individuals throughout the Richmond region, including those experiencing homelessness and housing instability, living in or around public housing, and/or living with HIV.
Tunner said it was fitting that the space will remain a nonprofit and continue to help the area’s growing senior homeless population.
The additions will allow them to offer 6,000 more dental visits and add 2,400 more patients, the nonprofit said.
Mast and Tunner highlighted that the facility will eventually house Virginia’s first dental lab owned and operated by a nonprofit.
The lab will be open to nonprofits across Virginia to save money and time. For example, they will spend $50 to create dentures in-house versus a $500 price tag from a third party.
They’re asking for donations from the public to help them complete the first phase of their project. The campaign is called “Give $24 to #24 East Cary Street in ’24.”
“Your support of our annual fund helps keep our doors open; your support of our capital campaign will help us open new doors," according to the group's website.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
📲: CONNECT WITH US
Blue Sky| Facebook| Instagram| X| Threads| TikTok| YouTube
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
