Getting inside Bend Memorial Clinic these days is a bit tricky.

Large yellow signs and traffic patrollers flag drivers toward the back entrance to the building and away from construction at the front end. Outlines of blue footprints lead patients through a series of hallways to the Urgent Care Center.

Walls exist where there once were none.

The clinic is in the process of remodeling its front entrance and has recently built a new imaging center, which includes its own magnetic resonance imaging scanner and computed tomography scanner.

The obvious changes are part of ongoing growth at the clinic, which is also expanding to satellite facilities in Redmond and on Bend’s west side, said Marvin Lein, new chief executive officer of BMC. Lein, who started the job about a month ago, will oversee the developments and guide the clinic’s expansion into the future.

”There is such tremendous opportunity here with this group and this community,” said Lein, 41.

”Bend Memorial Clinic has an ongoing commitment to meet the needs of the community,” Lein said.

Lein moved to Bend from Fort Collins, Colo., where he managed Associates in Family Medicine, a single-specialty, family practice group of about 30 physicians. He also has experience working for a larger practice in Florida with about 180 physicians and has been in the business of health care management for 12 years.

”Marvin is an outstanding leader, and his vision, commitment to patient care and ability to attract and retain talented doctors and medical personnel will energize and drive Bend Memorial Clinic forward in Bend and Central Oregon,” said Dr. Sid Henderson, chairman of the clinic’s board, in a prepared statement.

Lein will work with physicians and the board to make decisions about the future of Bend Memorial Clinic’s growth, he said. He expects that 10 to 15 new physicians will be hired by the clinic in the next year and that the new west-side clinic will open in April.

That facility will house family practice physicians, internal medicine physicians, ophthalmologists, pediatricians and another urgent care facility, Lein said. When the branch opens, it will be the first time in the clinic’s almost 60-year history that it has offered pediatric primary care.

”It will be our first site to implement electronic medical records,” Lein said. ”I believe it will transform patient care.”

BMC has chosen a different electronic medical records system than St. Charles Medical Centers in Bend and Redmond, Lein said.

The system will eventually be implemented throughout BMC’s facilities so patients’ records will easily be available for all BMC physicians.

Lein said he is most excited about the technological developments at the clinic. He said the new imaging center, including the MRI and CT scanners, was built to be inviting to patients with wood flooring and art on the walls.

The two machines went online about a month ago, said Randal Avolio, vice president of imaging services for BMC. Before, the clinic sent patients elsewhere for MRI or CT scans. Already, the clinic is doing roughly 10 MRI scans a day.

Revenue generated by the scanners helps to offset losses incurred by providing care at low reimbursement rates for Medicare and Medicaid, Lein said. The clinic has not been accepting new basic Medicare patients for quite some time, and Lein said he’ll be addressing that issue in his work as well.

”We are interested in finding every possible way to offer services to our entire community,” he said. ”With the state of health care financing the way it is, it’s getting more and more difficult every year.”