When CAPT Robert P. Sewell, DMD, arrived at IHS’ Jicarilla Service Unit in remote Dulce, NM, the facility was brand new, racking up design awards for its culturally evocative architecture and sophisticated lighting design.
The focal point of the stunning 64,000-square-foot facility, dedicated in late 2004, is a rotunda capped with a sloping roof, featuring a central skylight that allows sun to filter into the building, creating a soft glow throughout the space.
A curving staircase to the second floor is decorated with etched glass panels depicting Jicarilla men and women in silhouette. Twelve stainless steel cables, reminiscent of traditional teepee poles, surround the balcony.
The facility has a holistic ambience — in the Apache language, its Tribal name, Nzhonachi’idle’ee, means “a place to get well.”
Embossed in the floor of the rotunda is a Jicarilla basket design and the traditional Four Directions of the Native American Medicine Wheel, used by many Tribes to symbolize dimensions of health and the cycles of life.
But aside from the unique design and beauty of the space, its high-tech infrastructure is a major draw, especially in such a remote location.
“We made a decision to really pursue emerging technology as it became available to IHS,” says Dr. Sewell, Chief Dental Officer at the facility, also known as the Jicarilla Apache Health Care Facility or simply, the Dulce Health Center. Dulce is in the northernmost part of New Mexico, near the Colorado border.
Dr. Sewell, a Captain in the US Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps, arrived in 2006, and in late 2009, the facility was one of the first in the Albuquerque Area to begin using the Electronic Dental Record (EDR) system, which is now in use at 230 IHS sites.
Another innovation at the time was digital radiography. “The expense was the biggest barrier transitioning to digital technology, but our funding level allowed us to purchase all of the equipment needed,” Dr. Sewell says.
The facility was constructed under a Joint Venture Construction Program (JVCP) Agreement, through which the Tribe designed and built the new facility; IHS provided the initial equipment for the health center and leases the facility from the Tribe under a no-cost, 20-year lease.
“We made a decision to really pursue emerging technology as it became available to IHS.” — CAPT Robert P. Sewell Chief Dental Officer
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The facility serves a community of 3,600 patients and operates a nine-chair dental clinic. The importance of modernization to patient care has been “tremendous,” Dr. Sewell says. We went from being “like an emergency clinic” to a modern facility that is now designated as both a Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) and Dental Home. Both are official recognitions that a facility meets established standards for quality of care and employing a patient-centered approach.
Dr. Sewell says one of the most important advantages of having a modern facility for him, as a program manager, “is having all of your patients’ information at your fingertips, and not having to request a chart, wait for the chart to arrive and then look through the chart. You can condense that process down to a matter of seconds.”
Especially in such a remote location, modernization makes an impression. “With newer dentists getting out of school, when they come here for a site visit they are relieved to see that it’s a modern facility with state-of-the-art equipment,” he says. He adds that the dental clinic has been able to recruit specialists in dental prosthetics and pediatric dentistry to provide needed services.
Nationwide, IHS strives to have clinics with modern facilities utilizing leading-edge technologies. Pine Ridge and Rosebud, both in South Dakota, are two of several dental clinics that are currently being renovated and are in line to be supplied with new equipment.
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