POCATELLO, ID | by John O’Connell | March 14, 2019
Original article can be found at: https://www.idahostatejournal.com
POCATELLO — Officials with Health West plan to soon open a pair of new local clinics, including a pediatric medicine and mental health clinic and an OB-GYN clinic.
The nonprofit community health center’s pediatrics clinic is scheduled to open in late April, and the OG-GYN clinic should start taking patients this summer.
Health West will locate both clinics on the second floor of a building owned by Portneuf Health Trust at 500 S. 11th Ave. The Health West administrative offices have been based on the building’s fourth floor for about six years.
The new clinics will help Health West, which charges using a sliding scale based on a client’s ability to pay, offer more specialized services and meet rapidly increasing demand.
“We want to make sure everyone in Bannock County has access to an OB facility or a children’s facility because those are areas that have been monopolies in the area for a really long time,” said Amanda Collins, director of outreach with Health West.
Health West currently runs eight facilities — including clinics on Memorial Drive and Eighth Street in Pocatello and clinics in Chubbuck, Aberdeen, American Falls, Preston, Lava Hot Springs and Downey. Collins said the health center’s regional staffing has had to increase from 35 employees to 140 during the past five years. Health West now sees about 20,000 patients on average per year throughout its locations.
Collins said Health West already offers children’s behavioral and physical health services and OB-GYN services at all eight of its facilities through family practice physicians.
“We’ve never had a specialist who is a pediatrician,” Collins said.
Collins said Health West has hired a pediatrician and is still looking to hire a second pediatrician. A few months ago, she said Health West also added its first child psychologist, Kendra Westerhaus.
“There’s no other pediatric facility in the area that really offers that medical and behavioral integration,” Collins said.
She explained the health center allows patients to access care from several different specialists in one location, rather than referring them elsewhere.
Collins said Health West is also seeking to hire a pair of obstetricians for the OB-GYN clinic. The two new clinics combined will employ about 40 support staff members, Collins said.
Collins said Health West is working to secure privileges for its obstetricians to deliver babies at Portneuf Medical Center. She said Health West currently partners with Idaho State University to offer OB-GYN services. The university provides 21 family medicine residents, who provide care in Pocatello, American Falls and Aberdeen, under the direction medical doctors. The ISU residents will continue making rounds at the new clinic, Collins said.
Health West is part of a network of 9,000 federally qualified health centers throughout the U.S. It receives about a third of its funding from a federal grant and additional funding from clients, insurance payments and smaller grants.
“The reason that Health West really stepped into health care is to provide quality, affordable health care that’s integrated, local and accessible to everyone,” Collins said.
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