Doctor, doctor

Turning a field filled with junk into a hospital that now takes up three city blocks can bring you recognition.

And, judging by the smile on Dr. Albert Finch's face as he walks through the sliding glass doors of the building that now bears his name, recognition brings satisfaction.

"It's tremendous," Finch, 86, said of the Dr. Albert B. Finch Medical Office Building, which will be dedicated at 10 a.m. today. "I've never been more proud in my life or felt any more gratified."

The 40,000-square-feet building will house offices for up to 13 physicians. The offices, which still have to be custom designed, will be up to 6,000 square feet each.

Finch has been practicing as an obstetrician and gynecologist in Odessa since 1952. In 1975, he coerced 12 other doctors to start what was then known as Women's and Children's Hospital, and is now Odessa Regional Medical Center.

Finch said much has changed since he first walked through the area littered with old stoves, hot water heaters and tires.

"It's just really something how it has improved this whole area of town," he said. "It was kind of a hard go, but we made a go."

Although he hasn't delivered babies for more than 20 years, Finch still sees patients five days a week. His assistant, Sally Everett, said he gets patients who come in for check-ups from Alaska, California and Houston.

And employees are loyal, too. Everett's been with Finch for 43 years and isn't even his longest-serving worker. Bookkeeper Sue Prichard's worked for Finch for 45 years. Several others have more than 20 years experience.

"People say ‘I've been there 20 years,' " Everett said. "Oh, tough."

Finch sees the medical office building, budgeted at $6.8 million, as a fitting legacy.

"It's just superb to have it where doctors can get a short walk to their patients," he said of the building that's connected to Odessa Regional by an indoor walkway that crosses where Tom Green Avenue once passed.

Now Dasco, the Florida-based developer of the office building, will work with physicians to custom design their offices. While the building's hallways look ready for doctors and patients, the offices are still undeveloped shells.

Among the questions doctors will have to answer are how many exam rooms they want and how large they want their waiting area to be, said Jacqui Gore, Odessa Regional director of community relations.

Jimmy Grimes, Odessa Regional director of engineering, said doctors would move in incrementally over the summer.

"We won't wait until every space is finished to let them move in," he said.

And while Finch plans to stay in the offices he's had for decades, the man who says he's delivered 15,000 babies will always have a place at the new building - because without him the doctors might still be looking at a debris-strewn field.

BUILDING DEDICATION

>> What: Dedication of the Dr. Albert B. Finch Medical Office Building.

>> When: 10 a.m. Wednesday.

>> Where: Albert B. Finch Medical Office Building, adjacent to Odessa Regional Medical Center, 520 E. Sixth Street.