Republic to get new health clinic

Jordan Valley Comm. Health to build location on Elm Street
 
Plans are in the works for the construction of a new location for Jordan Valley Community Health Center location in Republic. The site for the new clinic, currently a vacant lot, is located behind Taco Bell on Elm Street.
Dr. Matthew Stinson, executive vice-president of medical behavioral health services for Jordan Valley, said they hope to have the new clinic open and ready to see patients sometime next year.
“Initially, our goal was to be done with it by end of the year,” he said. “That's not going to happen because of the supply chain and other issues, but … we're looking forward to that being in 2023.”
Stinson said Jordan Valley is building the new medical center because the population they serve in Republic is expanding.
“The mission of Jordan Valley really is about access to care, as well as building relationships with people,” he said. “We focus our care on the low income and those who are underinsured, and so I would tell you that we've seen growth in the Republic area in that group of people … to the point that we need to have more space for dental, medical and behavioral health services and hopefully also optometry services.”
The new location, Stinson said, will allow patients to have better access to medical care.
“There are a few different ways that it will serve us,” he said. “One is it will provide increased access so it will allow us to add some medical and dental providers, as well as behavioral health providers, so that we’ll have more openings and availability. Our dental practice in that area is scheduled out months ahead of time, and our medical practice is getting very full, so we have limited access and we want to expand that so we can meet the need.”
Stinson added that the new clinic would also allow Jordan Valley to provide new healthcare services as well as expand access to current offerings.
“We plan on adding vision services which would be optometry and glasses,” he said, “so we'll add that and we also hope to have full time behavioral healthcare. Right now, we have (behavioral healthcare), but it is not there all five days a week.”
While many details regarding the new location, including its size, are still being worked out, Stinson said it will be larger than their current location at 550 E. Harrison, a few doors north of McAlister’s.
“That part is still in process,” he said. “We don't know exactly how large it will be in terms of square footage right now, (but) it will definitely be larger than a space we're renting right now, which I believe is about 9,000 square feet.”
While Jordan Valley is looking forward to opening its new Republic location, Stinson said, he also made it clear that it would not detract from the services other healthcare organizations in the city are providing.
“There's just a lot of growth in the Republic community for obvious reasons,” he said, “and … this clinic, we hope, will … not compete with what's already there, but add to the care so that we can better take care of the community as a whole.”