NATCHEZ &8212; The Doctors&8217; Pavilion, a doctors&8217; building next to Natchez Regional Medical Center, was busy Wednesday, the first day it was open to patients.

The offices of Internal Medicine Associates and Dr. Frank Guedon on the third floor were the only two open.

Even though these two offices were finished, the rest of the building is still in the last stages of construction. Walls still needed paint and conduit was still being run.

Even though the building was not finished, the doctors and staff in the two offices were pleased to have the space.

&8220;We were all in old office buildings,&8221; said Karen Stubbs, who works in the front office for internal medicine. &8220;We needed more room.&8221;

Stubbs said all the doctors in internal medicine were seeing patients, and there were people sitting in the freshly painted waiting room.

Guedon practices in the women&8217;s health office across the hall. He said he had already seen 20 patients Wednesday morning and that the building was badly needed.

A group of six doctors and a Realtor jointly own the building, he said.

When the building is finished, he said, it will house a home health agency, a medical equipment company, an orthopedic office and an imaging center, among other things.

Guedon said the new building is a big improvement from his old office. He now has twice the space he had before, he said.

He has enough space to hire a nurse practitioner to help him with his patients, something he hopes will speed up appointment times, he said.

&8220;I had people waiting three months for regular checkups,&8221; Guedon said. &8220;Hopefully this will go a lot faster.&8221;

He also has a larger procedure room now, he said.

&8220;Before, we had everything crammed into one room,&8221; he said. &8220;When everybody wanted to see the ultrasound of their baby, they couldn&8217;t fit in the room. Now four to five people can see it at once.&8221;

A bigger parking lot means a shorter walk for patients and doctors, Guedon said. Private rooms mean nurses can talk to patients about confidential subjects, whereas conversations at his old office ran the risk of being overheard.

One of the best parts of his new office is the large windows, he said. The rooms at his old office did not have windows, he said.

&8220;With these nice, big windows, I feel like I&8217;m outside.&8221;