Robert M. Casey Naval Family Health Clinic Iwakuni staff celebrate grand opening

The Robert M. Casey Medical and Dental Clinic stands in the shadow of a newer building, Robert M. Casey Naval Family Branch Clinic Iwakuni.

U.S. and Japanese service members gathered inside the new building's lobby to celebrate the ribbon cutting and grand opening at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, May 30, 2018.

The grand opening consisted of speeches from those who played an important role in the building process, a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tours of the new facility from clinic personnel.

"We now provide inpatient services for the Mother Infant Care Center (MICC)," said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Jessica Beard, officer in charge of Naval Family Branch Clinic Iwakuni.  "That's labor and delivery services, 24 hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year. We have six labor delivery recovery and postpartum suites, as well as two surgical suites. We also have expanded services of a 24-hour lab capability and a 24-hour pharmacy to support the MICC."

The new facility provides new capabilities for medical personnel at MCAS Iwakuni, this helps keep up with the needs of the growing population on the air station.

"The new facility is essentially the same kind of services we were providing in the older facility," said U.S. Navy Lt. Josh Moore, administrative officer of Naval Family Branch Clinic Iwakuni. "With the addition of birthing services, it's really neat to have this beautiful, state-of-the-art, brand new building, brand new equipment and the same fired-up, ready-to-go staff to take care of the folks here at MCAS Iwakuni."

The new clinic provides improved dental and medical readiness as well as new facilities for all the services that the old facility provided.