(Bay City News) The David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base is receiving $13.1 million for upgrades and repairs, U.S. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek, announced Friday.

The funds are from the Department of the Air Force and will be used for several multi-year projects.

The projects include renovating the family practice clinic and dining area to expand capacity, stabilizing shelving to withstand earthquakes, upgrading the fire alarm system, replacing the medical waste sterilizer, and repairing the patient-nurse call system and the public address system.

Tauscher said she is proud of the "top-notch" services and care provided to veterans and military personnel returning from Iraq.

"These funds will help them continue to meet the needs of America's returning vets. I applaud their work and know that this facility is among the most deserving we have in the country," Tauscher said.

The 808,000-square-foot medical center opened on Oct. 15, 1998 and contains 3,662 rooms, 350 inpatient beds and a 52-room dental clinic.

On a typical day there are seven admissions, 50 inpatients, 2.5 births, 16 operations, 1,152 clinical visits, 2,500 lab procedures and 3,042 outpatient prescriptions, according to the center's Web site.

The center is home to more than 2,000 men and women of the 60th Medical Group and is the largest Air Force medical facility on the West Coast, serving eight western states.