By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

CLANTON — Dr. Jon Eric Binkerd and Chilton Surgical Associates celebrated its new location with an open house and ribbon cutting on March 22.

Chilton Surgical Associates had been looking for a new location, and saw an opportunity when a medical office moved out across the street from the old office on Lay Dam Road.

“The facility is a lot newer and it was really custom made for a physician,” Binkerd said. “It’s a better place for us.”

Krystine Gish, office manager for Dr. Binkerd, said the new facility had a better layout, and a more “fresh … updated look” than the previous location.

“It is more catered to what we need,” Gish said.

The new office features three exam rooms, one of which is used for the procedures that can be completed on site. Other surgeries are done at St. Vincent’s Chilton.

With the new building come, some technology upgrades.

“We have new technology that allows me to use graphics to explain the different options,” Binkerd said.

A screen in the exam room is used to access a program which shows interactive, computer-generated graphics of different areas of human anatomy. Binkerd can zoom in to visually aid his explanation of problems and what can be done.

“The more they [patients] understand, the more comfortable they are. Everybody is scared when they are going to have surgery. It’s the unknown. It’s going under the knife. The more I can do to explain to them exactly what is being done, the more informed they are,” Binkerd said.

Community leaders and patients came out to celebrate the ribbon cutting. Juanita Johnson said Binkerd had been her surgeon for two prior surgeries, and will be her surgeon again to remove a cyst from her arm.

“He is a loving and caring man. He is very humble and he is definitely interested in his patients,” Johnson said.

The medical office is open Monday to Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Chilton Surgical Associates is now located at 1015 Lay Dam Road.