GraceMed Health Clinic planning expansion in McPherson, elsewhere

GraceMed Health Clinic, a nonprofit provider that has eight locations in Wichita, is on track to open a clinic in McPherson.

“This may very well be the first clinic established under the GraceMed umbrella outside of Wichita,” Dave Sanford, CEO of GraceMed, said.

GraceMed is also trying to acquire clinics from Shawnee County and Marian Clinic in Topeka.

This would be McPherson’s first clinic to accept uninsured patients. But Sanford said the push behind the clinic also stems from overall physician demand. Most McPherson physicians have a full patient roster, he said.

GraceMed is working toward a lease agreement for a 2,500-square-foot space at 400 W. Fourth St. in McPherson, big enough for six exam rooms. That location is across the street from McPherson Hospital.

“That will help us support the hospital for ER diversion,” Sanford said. “We’re hoping to offload some of the non-emergency care that the hospital is providing.”

Sanford said the project would likely cost around $185,000, which he said he hopes to fund through local donations. Sanford said he plans to open the clinic by September or October. He said he wants the clinic to have two family medicine providers, including at least one physician, with the other provider a nurse practitioner or physician assistant.

For dental care, Sanford said he wants to pursue partnerships with local dentists until demand for care exceeds the number of dentists available.

“We don’t like to go into a community and have people perceive that what we’re doing is a threat,” he said.

He said he anticipates the medical clinic will serve 2,400 people a year and will have about 8,000 total patient visits per year.

According to data from the Uniform Data System, 8,170 low-income residents live in the McPherson clinic target area. Sanford said about 40 percent of GraceMed’s patients in Wichita do not have insurance.

The concept for the clinic sprouted out of a McPherson community group led by the McPherson Healthcare Foundation to serve uninsured and underinsured patients. The closest clinics serving uninsured patients are in Hutchinson, Salina and Newton.

“If you can’t afford to go to a doctor, you probably can’t afford transportation either,” said Chad Clark, former executive director of the McPherson Healthcare Foundation, who is still involved with the GraceMed project.

The community group put out a request for proposals in March 2014 and selected GraceMed in October after reviewing applications from Salina Family Health Care and Heart of Kansas in Great Bend.

“We felt GraceMed already had great resources and expanded out of its original site,” Clark said.

Compared to the rest of the state, McPherson County looks pretty healthy, according to county ranking data from the Kansas Health Institute.

That data shows that McPherson County ranks third for health factors, such as drug use, diet, exercise, air and water quality, education, employment and access to care, to name a few. Those factors lead to health outcomes, or length and quality of life, and McPherson ranks tenth in the state for those measures.

“There are good things going on in that community, based off the numbers,” said Gianfranco Pezzino, senior fellow and strategy team leader for the Kansas Health Institute. “That’s something to be proud of.”

This story was originally published May 11, 2015 at 7:00 PM with the headline "GraceMed Health Clinic planning expansion in McPherson, elsewhere."