“I am sorry that your computer did not meet requirements for the H1N1 vaccine. . . . It may not return to service until fever has resolved for at least 24 hours!”
— Newton Medical Center infection control nurse Michelle Starks’ response to an e-mail from payroll about a computer being down due to a virus
“My nurse has informed me that I need a vacation. She’s right. #grumpyboss”
– A Tuesday tweet on Twitter from Tana Goering (@drTana, but better known as a medical expert on KSN, Channel 3), referring to a nurse at her Hillside Medical Office
WICHITA — It’s probably not the easiest thing to work for someone else after owning your own business for almost two decades.
Mike Snowbarger learned that.
Snowbarger was a dentist in the McPherson area for 18 years before joining Dental Corner in Wichita four years ago.
He moved here because “I had a whole bunch of grandkids in town.”
Next month, he’s opening his own place again.
He’ll open Smilecraftsman at 1405 S. Hydraulic.
“We’re going to keep it small,” Snowbarger says of his 1,200-square-foot space.
Snowbarger will offer teeth whitening, special finance plans, low-cost arches and a no-cavity guarantee for children.
He’s looking forward to working for himself again.
“The thing I like about dentistry in the first place is you’ve go so much flexibility.”
WICHITA — Gessler Drug Co. is heading home.
So says Hal Schwarz, who is relocating the store from Normandie Center at Central and Woodlawn to where AAA Kansas used to be next to Il Vicino near Douglas and Oliver.
That’s one corner over from where Gessler first opened in Wichita in 1938. Watermark Books & Cafe is there today.
Schwarz says Gessler was one of the original anchor tenants in what became Lincoln Heights Village in 1949.
When he recently was looking for new space, Schwarz says the 4,300-square-foot location he found “just stood out far and above anything else we had seen.”
WICHITA — Kwik Shop, the convenience store chain owned by Kroger, is contemplating adding pharmacies to its stores.
“I think that sounds interesting,” says president Jeff Parker.
That doesn’t mean, though, that it’s going to happen.
“We have looked at a lot of things like that,” Parker says.
He’s also checked into a Kroger convenience store chain in Florida that has one location with a pharmacy.
But at this point, he’s still in the consideration stage. Parker doesn’t have a timetable that he wants to make a decision by.
“We don’t have any kind of definitive schedule or anything like that.”
WICHITA — College Hill Pediatrics is moving, but not far.
The practice currently is in 2,800 square feet at 162 N. Hillside.
“We kind of outgrew this space,” says pediatrician Arun Kumar, whose partner is pediatrician Conrad Agustin Jr.
They’re moving to 315 N. Hillside, where their new suite will be 4,000 square feet.
They also will lease 2,000 square feet to pediatrician Patsy Barker, who is moving there in September.
Kumar and Agustin will still have another 4,000 square feet to lease.
“We’d prefer to have a medical office,” Kumar says.
They also plan to lease the space where they are currently after they move in October.
Ink Construction is remodeling the new space.
WICHITA — After more than a decade near the St. Francis campus, Neurology Consultants of Kansas is moving east to J.V. Johnston’s Collective at K-96 and East 21st Street.
“We are going to be building a new 10,000-square-foot building for outpatient neurology and electrodiagnostic medicine,” says Tally Bell, a nurse practitioner and administrator for the group.
“We’ve really outgrown our space,” she says.
Bell says new patients often have to wait five or six months to be seen.
“We’re going to try to better meet that need,” she says.
That means the practice will be adding another physician at some point for a total of five.
Bell says the group will take its time finding one.
“It’s very important to us that we keep . . . . what we think is a good mix,” she says. “We’ve got such a good mix right now.”
There also are two nurse practitioners, and a third is a possibility.
Along with more room for procedures, outpatient hours will expand as well to keep up with what Bell calls “unmet needs in the community.”
“It’s way ahead of us, so to speak,” she says.
Construction will begin in late July or early August.
Simpson & Associates is the contractor, and WDM Architects is the architect.
WICHITA — There are a couple of items of interest coming soon before the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission.
Sedgwick County is seeking a zoning change from single family residential to limited commercial for the southwest corner of University and Tyler.
There’s an 8,115-square-foot decommissioned fire station there that the county hopes to sell.
Look for an auction through McCurdy Auction once the zoning change is approved.
One person connected to rezoning calls it an interesting piece of property in part because former fire stations are unique structures that are “solid as a rock.”
WICHITA – Twigs owner Iven Kelley is opening what you might call Twigs Jr.
As of June 1, he’ll be operating a small Twigs as the gift shop at Galichia Heart Hospital.
“It’s going to be a different kind of a hospital gift store,” Kelley says.
There won’t be candy or newspapers for sale. There will be gift items, such as those he sells at his Twigs near Central and Woodlawn. There also will be flowers for sale, and customers can place floral orders there as well.
Kelley says about 600 people work in the hospital and offices next door, so he hopes they’ll shop at the store in addition to hospital visitors.
The store is on the first floor of the hospital near the entrance.
“It’s going to be cool,” Kelley says.
WICHITA — The Village at Greenwich is leasing its final space in it first building at 21st and Greenwich.
Physician Paul Cheatum is opening Innovative Vein Solutions in about 3,000 square feet on June 1.
Cheatum is the former medical director and physician for New Leaf Vein and Aesthetics. He says New Leaf had a range of aesthetic and other services, and he was running out of space for his practice.
“I decided to move and open up my own place,” he says. “It won’t be nearly as focused on aesthetics.”
Cheatum will still do some aesthetics work, but mostly he’ll concentrate on phlebology.