"There's a problem now and a growing problem in that most of the practices in our area are not taking new patients or there's a really long waiting list," SVMC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Trey Dobson said.

 

"We opened a new walk-in clinic in Februrary, ExpressCare, and the purpose was to serve patients who either don't have a primary care provider or can't get in to see their primary care provider in a reasonable time frame. During that five-month time frame, we've logged over 500 patients who don't have a primary care provider."

 

Combine that trend with the number of doctors in the region nearing retirement age, and you get a picture of an under-served population throughout the tri-state region that includes southwestern Vermont, northern Berkshire County and eastern New York.

 

Enter SVMC's Pownal Campus, which will open in October with room for three or four health care providers and the capacity to serve up to 2,000 patients.

 

Those providers will be a mix of doctors and "associate providers" -- either nurse practitioners or physician's assistants, Dobson said.

 

"As health care reform takes place and the Affordable Care Act goes into effect, primary care becomes even more important," he said. "Patients need to have a primary care provider they can access readily.

 

"The Pownal location worked out well. We also have other initiatives in the works in New York and north of Bennington."

 

Dobson said about 25 percent of SVMC's "patient encounters" are with New Yorkers. A smaller percentage -- more like 5 to 10 percent -- come from Massachusetts, but that number has been growing.

 

In addition to serving people not currently in the system, the Pownal facility will help patients who already see providers at Southwestern Vermont's Bennington campus.

 

"Access to our internal medicine and pediatrics on the Bennington campus has improved as we've recruited providers, but it doesn't meet the demand," Dobson said. "We don't have a family practice on site. We do in Manchester [Vt.] and Wilmington [Vt.], but we don't at the moment have it on campus.

 

"So it was either place it here on campus or we wanted to look at the Pownal area because we do have a lot of patients there. We also wanted to serve Williamstown, North Adams, Adams in Massachusetts."

 

The Pownal facility is modeled on SVMC's existing satellite campuses in Manchester and Wilmington, but there will be state-of-the art features that will make the Pownal site a model for future projects, Dobson said.

 

"We're doing some unique things with the overall appearance of the building as well as work flow," he said. "The design of the office will have a team-based approach. The physician, nurse and staff will be co-located instead of separated from one another. That really adds efficiency. If you're working next to the person, you don't have to find them or leave them messages."

 

And the 5,000-square-foot facility will be outfitted with the capability for telemedicine consultations with specialists at SVMC affiliate Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H.

 

The Pownal office will open with eight examination rooms, two consult rooms, an x-ray and the capability to do blood draws that can be couriered to Bennington for analysis.

 

Patients will be able to make regular appointments or seek "sick day" visits, although the latter could be referred to the ExpressCare clinic in Bennington, depending on demand, Dobson said.

 

In addition to the regular staff of providers on site, the Pownal facility likely will host weekly or twice-monthly office hours for SVMC specialists -- the same model the hospital uses at its Deerfield Valley and Northshire campuses.

 

To date, SVMC has announced just one of the practitioners who will staff the Pownal Campus: Dr. Michael Welther, who is leaving Arlington, Vt.'s, Battenkill Valley Health Center for the 27-mile trip south down Route 7.

 

"A few of the physicians we've spoken with could start shortly thereafter," Dobson said, referring to Welther's arrival in October. "We're in discussions with new physicians -- new to the area -- as well as some already established here. The goal is to increase access, not just shuffle it around."