UT Health is opening a new family medicine center in newly renovated space just off the Health Science Campus.

The UT Health Family Medicine Center will reunite the family medicine practice now located in the Ruppert Center and the family medicine residency practice that has been located on the St. Luke’s Hospital campus since 2007. It will also include a Geriatric Medicine Center relocated from Lutheran Homes at Wolf Creek.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony will be 10 a.m. Tuesday, June 30 at the building now called Glendale Medical East, 3333 Glendale Ave.

“Bringing these three groups together will enable us to provide excellent patient access in a building that will see a new purpose,” said Dr. Linda Speer, chairperson of the Department of Family Medicine. “We will continue to provide primary care for people of all ages from birth to the end of life in a setting that is physically up to date and attractive.”

Glendale Medical East is the former Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic that was located on Glendale Avenue. The $3.6 million capital project included renovations for 28,000 square feet of the building with the remaining being shelled for future renovations. The project took six months.

The Geriatric Medical Center will be housed initially with family medicine and eventually in a separate space within the building as capital funds become available to renovate additional space.

Speer said the UT Health Family Medicine Center will be convenient for patients, while also fulfilling the public’s demand for more primary care access including same day access. New patients are being accepted.

The trend in the recent past has been for everyone to see specialists, according to Steve Bailey, clinic manager of the UT Health Family Medicine Center. Therefore, patients have a lot of specialists, but they don’t have a primary care physician to tie it all together, he said. Family physicians handle preventive care, chronic illness care, acute illness and injury care and minor procedures.

The opening of the center at Glendale Medical East coincides with the return of the UT Family Medicine Residency Program to UT Health. The program accepts four new residents each year.

“We are so glad to have the residency program fully integrated within the UT family,” said Dr. Christopher Cooper, senior vice president for clinical affairs and dean of the College of Medicine and Life Sciences. “Resident often stay in the community, opening a practice or joining a hospital. It is critical that we attract the highest quality students for our residency programs and work to retain them here in Northwest Ohio.”

Media Coverage
The Blade (June 26, 2015)

Tags: The University of Toledo Medical Center (UTMC)