A North Dirksen Parkway storefront that underwent $800,000 in improvements is the home of St. John's Hospital's newest outpatient clinic.
"We specifically chose that site because of the visibility," Dr. Richard Rolston, chief executive officer of Hospital Sisters Health System Medical Group, said Monday.
The medical group, a part of the Catholic health care system that operates St. John's, staffs the newly opened St. John's Health Center-North Dirksen Parkway and four other health centers and Springfield Priority Care sites in Sangamon County.
The site at 2329 N. Dirksen Parkway, which is between two restaurants and across the street from a Wal-Mart, is part of a system-wide "care integration" strategy designed to promote closer working relationships between Hospital Sisters hospitals and doctors, Rolston said.
The strategy - being used by hospitals nationwide - puts outpatient care closer to patients and helps ensure more referrals to Hospital Sisters institutions when inpatient or outpatient care at those hospitals is needed, he said.
Doctors at the clinics aren't required to refer patients to affiliated facilities, Rolston said.
Employing more doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants in outpatient settings also will help HSHS hospitals control costs as federal health-care reforms ratchet down payments to health-care providers in the future, he said.
Response from the neighborhood to the new north side clinic has been positive, Rolston said.
Hospital Sisters Health System started increasing its employment of doctors many years after Memorial Health System made that move. Memorial opened a Memorial ExpressCare clinic a few blocks from St. John's North Dirksen site in the spring.
The number of doctors employed by HSHS in Illinois has increased sevenfold over the past 18 months. In January 2009, when the medical group was formed, about 20 doctors were employed. That number now stands at 140, including five doctors in Wisconsin.
The group employs a total of more than 700 people in Illinois and Wisconsin.
The medical group staffs Springfield Priority Care clinics at 1836 S. MacArthur Blvd. and 3631 S. Sixth St. It also provides care at St. John's Health Center-Prairie Crossing, 4337 Conestoga Drive, which opened in February, and St. John's Health Center-Rochester, which opened in April.
St. John's is spending $6.9 million to build St. John's Health Center-South Sixth Street, 1100 E. Lincolnshire Blvd. That facility is expected to open by February.
The Prairie Crossing clinic is focused on appointment-based care, but St. John's Health Center-Panther Creek - under construction across Illinois 4 - will offer walk-in care and care by appointment, Rolston said.
The Panther Creek site, 2801 Mathers Road, will have space for six doctors. It will open in February or March, he said.
Dean Olsen can be reached at 788-1543.
St. John's Health Center-North Dirksen Parkway
The outpatient clinic provides walk-in primary care without appointments, as well as appointment-based care.
St. John's Health Center-North Dirksen Parkway has two doctors and a physician assistant, with room to add two more providers.
The clinic is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week and can be reached at 789-1403.
Right Photo: St. John's Health Center, 2329 N. Dirksen Pkwy.
Top Photo: T.J. Salsman/The State Journal-Register -- Dr. Dennis Adams, foreground, will be at the new facility which will serve as the third Priority Care location in Sangamon County.
