'UF&Shands Family Medicine at Main' will improve health care access for East Gainesville residents
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (Sept. 19, 2011) — UF&Shands leaders today joined with city of Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe and Gainesville City Commissioner Scherwin Henry to break ground for “UF&Shands Family Medicine at Main,” a new University of Florida Physicians medical practice that will enable UF&Shands to improve access to primary care for East Gainesville residents and better address the needs of the community.
The new practice will open July 1, 2012, marking the relocation of services from Family Medicine at Fourth Avenue into a modern facility with additional patient space.
The two-story, 24,200-square-foot facility at 1707 N. Main St. will replace the existing Family Medicine at Fourth Avenue practice and will have nearly 40 percent more space.
Serving adult and pediatric patients, UF&Shands Family Medicine at Main will contain 24 exam rooms — five more than the current practice — two procedure rooms and designated rooms for group visits and counseling.
The current practice, at 625 SW Fourth Ave., has 19 exam rooms in approximately 15,000 square feet. Officials anticipate approximately 25,000 patient visits during the first year at the new location, with the projected capacity of more than 36,000 visits annually.
“We are committed to creating a model of family-centered primary care that promotes health and reduces the need for hospital admissions,” said David S. Guzick, M.D., Ph.D., UF senior vice president for health affairs and president of the UF&Shands Health System. “We are thrilled to break ground for this new community-based facility in which UF faculty and staff will provide truly comprehensive health care close to where people live and work.”
UF&Shands Family Medicine at Main will be staffed by 10 UF College of Medicine physicians, 26 residents, two sports medicine fellows, a faculty member from the College of Pharmacy, a licensed clinical social worker and a nurse midwife.
They offer adult and pediatric comprehensive care; orthopedics and sports medicine; dermatology; podiatry; OB/GYN, including prenatal care and ultrasound; pharmacy education; social services; behavioral health care; lab tests; stress tests; X-rays and OB ultrasound. The team also performs minor surgical procedures such as flexible nasolaryngoscopy, colposcopy, skin biopsies and lesion removals.
“UF&Shands Family Medicine at Main will continue our tradition at UF&Shands with an important role — training students and residents in how to provide high-quality primary care and serving as a key component of the medical care available to East Gainesville residents,” said Marvin Dewar, M.D., J.D., chief executive officer/chief medical officer for UF Physicians and the senior associate dean of UF Physicians at the College of Medicine.
“Although we celebrate the groundbreaking of a new building,” Dewar said, “the people who benefit will be the tens of thousands of patients who will receive care at the new site over the coming years. This is a celebration for our community.”
The department of community health and family medicine at UF and its residency program play a role in providing care to communities and also in training the doctors of tomorrow, graduating about eight new family physicians each year. The American Academy of Family Physicians predicts a shortage of 40,000 family medicine physicians by 2020.
“This new facility will allow us to expand our medical care for the Gainesville community, providing our patients with a medical home and using the latest technology to emphasize comprehensive medical care as part of the UF&Shands system,” said R. Whit Curry Jr., M.D., chairman of the department of community health and family medicine. “We are also excited that it will allow us to optimally train more family physicians for Florida and our community, as well as provide a clinical site for educating a variety of health professional students.”
To date, of 247 UF family medicine residency program graduates, 160 practice in Florida and 72 practice in Gainesville. The residency program started in 1973.
Helping bring UF&Shands Family Medicine at Main to East Gainesville are developer Trimark Properties, architect Skinner Vignola McLean Inc., contractor M.M. Parrish and civil engineers Causseaux, Hewett & Walpole Inc., all local companies.
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